FIITJEE chief among 10 booked, 2 FIRs lodged

The sudden downturn has affected at least 3,500 students who were relying on the institute to ace competitive examinations.

Police in Uttar Pradesh filed two first information reports against FIITJEE over the abrupt closure of the coaching institute’s centres in Noida and Ghaziabad that has left hundreds of students in the lurch ahead of board and college entrance examinations.

Police in Uttar Pradesh filed two first information reports against FIITJEE over the abrupt closure of the coaching institute’s centres in Noida and Ghaziabad that has left hundreds of students in the lurch ahead of board and college entrance examinations. (HT Photo)

In Noida, police registered a case of criminal conspiracy and criminal breach of trust against FIITJEE founder Dinesh Kumar Goyal and nine others. The Noida centre shut shop on Wednesday, becoming the latest of at least eight FIITJEE institutes to close across the country.

The sudden downturn has affected at least 3,500 students, who were relying on the institute that made a name for itself training young teenagers to ace competitive engineering and medical examinations.

“On Thursday, nearly 150 parents approached the Sector 58 police station and filed a complaint that the FIITJEE Noida centre closed without any notification. On their complaint, a case under sections 336 (forgery), 316 (criminal breach of trust), 318(4) (cheating), and 61 (criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and 397 of the Company Act was registered at the Sector 58 police station against nine people, including the owner, management, and director,” said Noida deputy commissioner of police Ram Badan Singh.

Police said the centre’s 40-member staff, including teachers and pantry workers, resigned on Wednesday and joined a rival coaching institute. “It was informed that FIITJEE Noida did not pay salary to the staff for the past two months. As they got increments, they all left in a day. Strict action will be taken against the teachers also,” said sector 58 station house officer Amit Kumar.

The suspects were identified as Dinesh Kumar Goyal; Ramesh Batlish, director of Noida FIITJEE; Monila Goel; Partha Halder; Sadhu Ram Bansal; Rushtam Dinshaw Batliwala; Shashikant Dubey; Mohit Sardana; and Aanad Raman P, and directors of the FIITJEE Noida centre, said police. It is yet to be ascertained what role the other accused played in the case.

“We would like to inform that after taking all the money of parents and promising a good future for the children, all the mentioned accused have manipulated the whole amount of parents and without informing any of the parents,” reads the FIR filed by the parents’ association and signed by at least 250 parents.

“To utter shock and surprise for the parents, they even did not issue any notice/communication that under what circumstances all accused persons have closed the FITTEE Institute, Sector 62, Noida.”

A senior police officer said on the condition of anonymity that the parents didn’t get a satisfactory response from FIITJEE and that at least 1,000 students were enrolled at the centre. “When the children reached the FIITJEE Noida centre on Wednesday, they found that the shutter was down and there were locks on the entrance,” said the officer, requesting anonymity.

Batlish’s phone was switched off. FIITJEE officials did not respond to HT’s queries.

A second FIR was filed in Ghaziabad. Deputy commissioner of police Rajesh Kumar said the FIITJEE management appeared to be attempting to escape the situation. “The district education officer investigated the issue and submitted a report to the Kavi Nagar police station. An FIR has been filed against FIITJEE,” he said.

The closures of FIITJEE centres in Noida, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Lucknow and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, and one centre each in Bhopal, Patna, and Delhi came after a raft of teachers resigned from these centres over the non-payment of salaries and better offers from other institutes.

Students said they were concerned about their future.

“I am forced to take home tuition to cover the remaining syllabus for my Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) board class 10 examinations scheduled to begin from February 15. I am aiming to clear the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) to get admission into Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) but it has been stopped completely due to closure of FIITJEE Patna and I am worried about my future. I could not approach my teachers for solving my doubts, now,” said Maules Krishna, a student enrolled at FIITJEE’s Patna centre.

Aayush Kumar, another student from FIITJEE’s Patna centre and studying in Class 11, said he was forced to take online classes from another coaching institute. “I am not able to fully grasp everything from online classes for which I have paid ₹5,000 for one year. I had paid ₹2.5 lakh to FIITJEE and I want a refund,” he said.

Parents and students said most of the academic staff of FIITJEE’s Patna centre joined Sri Chaitanya’s Patna branch and teachers of FIITJEE Noida Sector 62 joined Aakash Institute’s Noida Sector 62 branch. HT saw messages on WhatsApp sent by the teachers asking the students to enroll in the rival institutes. “The entire academic staff of this centre has moved to Aakash Institute and is asking us to enroll our children by paying ₹50,000. My daughter is in Class 11 and preparing for IIT. She is distressed and her studies are affected,” said Rajiv Sharma, whose daughter is enrolled at FIITJEE’s Noida centre.

Parents said the teachers wrote to them on WhatsApp and that they weren’t given their dues and salaries for three months. Sanjay Raj from Patna said he enrolled his son in a rival institute after paying ₹40,000. “I had no other option than to enroll my son there for his studies because most of FIITJEE Patna faculty have moved on to Sri Chaitanya,” he said.

Both Aakash Institute in Noida and Sri Chaitanya in Patna confirmed to HT that former FIITJEE faculties have joined them and started new classes for students.

“Students have to come with the FIITJEE fee payment slip to get admission in Aakash’s Invictus classes. They have to pay the remaining fee at Aakash Institute,” a person handling the institute’s landline number said.

“We have almost all the former FIITJEE Patna faculty and are admitting former FIITJEE Patna students,” said a person from Sri Chaitanya handling new admissions.