Chennai, Sept. 5: Tamil Nadu police have begun an “internal probe” into what threatens to be a major sex scandal involving at least 30 officers.

Official sources said a senior officer in Madurai district is probing the charges of “sexual exploitation and harassment” levelled by 31-year-old ‘Sivakasi’ Jayalakshmi.

The Tamil press has been going to town about Jayalakshmi’s escapades since she was allegedly exploited by a policeman in Tirunelveli more than seven years ago and “forced into prostitution”. That “turning point”, which led to wider contacts in the force, took a dramatic turn when she recently filed an affidavit before the Madurai bench of Madras High Court.

This was after Jayalakshmi’s father Alagirisamy sent a telegram in early August to Chief Justice B. Subashan Reddy, saying his daughter has been missing since police raided his house and took her away for questioning.

The judge ordered the Madurai bench to treat the telegram as a habeas corpus petition. The bench in turn asked the police to produce her in court.

Since then, every appearance of Jayalakshmi in court has threatened to blow the lid off the scandal. Jayalakshmi had first named 22 policemen, including high-ranking officials, who, she alleged, had “sexually harassed and exploited her”.

Over the past seven years, she befriended a wider circle of police officials, lawyers, businessmen and even politicians as she embarked on a “multilevel marketing business” on her own, but all after she divorced her husband.

Jayalakshmi is believed to have later married four police officers — three inspectors and a deputy superintendent — in a string of relationships made and broken as part of an allegedly devious business activity.

“Apparently, Jayalakshmi had approached police officials for some business favours. Now she turns around to say she had been exploited by them,” said a source in Madurai.

“Her claims will have to be investigated thoroughly.”

It has also been alleged that some police officers “used her to get certain things done as she had access to power centres and later dumped her”. The department has suspended an inspector, a sub-inspector and two others after Jayalakshmi’s sensational disclosures.