By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS
Kathmandu : A one-year crusade by a gutsy 26-year-old woman from India’s Patna city has exposed a major racket in Nepal that preyed on Indian students for years and yet went unpunished because it was run by a brother-in-law of King Gyanendra.
Over 100 Indian students were defrauded of millions of rupees and had their careers blighted by Nepali businessman Diwakar Chand, who is married to a first cousin of the king.
An Indian died under mysterious circumstances and yet two years later, police are yet to resolve the mystery.
In 2002, Chand set up an organisation, Global Education Foundation, which claimed to run a newly opened medical college in Mahendranagar city in Kanchanpur district in farwestern Nepal.
Though the Mahendranagar Medical College had no official recognition, Chand systematically advertised in major Indian newspapers and appointed representatives in key cities to lure gullible students.
“I paid him Rs.1.25 million for admission in 2002,” says Neelam Kumari Sharma, a resident of Patna’s Buddha Colony whose battle finally landed Chand in police remand this week.
“There were about 50 students in the first batch, who came from all over India.”
After two months, the classes stopped and the students were told to go home. Though the classes resumed after four months, they became erratic and there were not enough teachers. Also, in four years, it did not hold a single examination.
“It was then that we were informed the college had no recognition,” Neelam says. “Despite that, Chand made us pay another Rs.65,000 in 2005, saying the first year exam would finally be held.
“He kept on telling us, ‘I am the king’s brother-in-law, have faith, everything will come through’.”
Neelam estimates there were about 100 Indian students in 2005 when the bubble finally burst.
By that time, though the king had seized power through a coup, things had started going bad for him. The international community was pressuring him to surrender power and the Maoists had stepped up attacks.
The managing director of the enterprise, an Indian from Hyderabad, M. Subbarao, was found dead in Mahendranagar under mysterious circumstances, giving rise to suspicions of foul play.
Though police began an investigation, two years later Subbarao’s death still remains unresolved.
As Chand closed the college using the death as an excuse, stunned students, many of who had lost four years by then, began asking him to refund their money.
The royal relative signed several cheques, including two to Neelam, which bounced. Says Neelam: “I have also lost four precious years.”
For one year since 2006, she kept pressuring Chand to refund her money along with the accrued interest.
Finally, last month, she filed a case of fraud at the Hanumandhoka police station in Kathmandu.
Neelam says she was threatened and her relatives assaulted by Chand’s two sons and their friends in front of the police station.
“You can’t do a thing to me,” he reportedly told her. “I am related to Karan Singh in India and other influential Indian leaders.”
However, finally police arrested Chand Thursday and the court ordered him to be kept in remand for five days.
But it remains to be seen how long he stays there and whether he would be brought to book, despite the reported waning of King Gyanendra’s influence after the end of his regime last year.
Police said Chand is “suffering from jaundice” and “recently had a biopsy”. He is likely to get permission to be admitted to hospital.
Meanwhile, a Nepali doctor, Kabir Nath Yogi, has also filed a case against Chand, alleging the royal brother-in-law owes him NRS 1.5 million for buying medical equipment from him.
Chand was running the contact office for the college from a plush hotel in Kathmandu, close to the royal palace.
He took a sizeable loan from a Nepali bank for the Cross Country Hotel. However, neither did the hotel start nor did he pay the loan.
Though he was blacklisted by Nepal’s central bank, the government has still not taken any action against him due to his clout.
In 2005, soon after the king staged his coup, Chand, then general secretary of the World Hindu Federation, that was campaigning for the king, flew in Indian leader Ashok Singhal to laud the royal takeover.