Amity astounds

The owner of the Amity group of educational institutes - Ashok Kumar Chauhan - is wanted by Interpol for financial frauds committed in Germany many years ago, reports Tehelka.

Wonder why such a major story - which appeared in the magazine in 2005 - did not hit any other newspaper. Could the fact that Amity is a MAJOR advertiser in both print and electronic media be one of the reasons?

Incidentally, Amity tried - but failed - to 'buy out' Tehelka in more ways than one.

"First the Chauhans tried to stop the story through subtle offers of advertisement support, then made several phone calls and sent several Amity representatives to Tehelka saying they would like to keep copies of Tehelka on their campuses. That having failed, they offered to bear the costs of stopping the printing press. When even this did not work, they tried to buy as many copies at traffic signals and from distributors.

Deepak Sehgal, proprietor of Central News Agency (CNA) which supplied the newspaper to retailers stated that demand for the Jun 11 issue suddenly shot up in the market."

Apparently, the Delhi Police and the CBI had been sitting on an Interpol 'red corner notice' against Chauhan for years. The Ministry of External Affairs has also failed to act on an extradition request.

Tehelka implied that this may be due to the fact that 'sons and daughters of VIPS study in these institutions - and he has links in both the BJP and the Congress'.

'We nurture talent', goes the Amity promise... Maybe evading arrest from banks whom you owe millions of dollars to is one of them.

Ashok Kumar Chauhan and Arun Kumar Chauhan, directors of Amity International committed frauds in Germany, US and the Netherlands. They run Law schools and Journalism schools. Perhaps, they teach the art of fraud in these schools.

Why should it surprise anyone? Amity is a advertiser in both print and electronic media and money can buy any media house be it Indian Express or NDTV or others.

Whenever there is conflict between Money and Truth, these media houses prefer the former and discard the latter. Amity bought as many copies of Tehelka as it could to stop people from knowing the truth about its crime.

As is well known the Amity is always in the media with its advertisments claiming to be the first and largest private university in India. Institutions like Amity are teaching courses in Mass Communication.

This is contrary to the University Grants Commission Act, 1956. Its Section 23 reads: 'Prohibition of the use of the word "University" in certain cases.No institution, whether a corporate body or not, other than a University established or incorporated by or under a Central Act, a Provincial Act or a State Act shall be entitled to have the word "University" associated with its name in any manner whatsoever.'

Amity was setup by Dr. Ashok K. Chauhan, Chairman of the worldwide AKC Group of Companies who went to Germany over four decades ago and established a great business empire and became one of the greatest NRI’s of Europe.

AKC Group of Companies has Industrial Organisations like Technicom-Chemie India Limited, Bacfo Pharmaceuticals India Limited, Kunstocom India Limited, CHABRO-CHEMIE India Limited besides Amity group of educational institutions.

Amity runs courses in Communication such as Master of Advertising & Marketing Management, Master of Journalism & Communication, Master of Mass Communication, Master of Television & Film Production at its Amity School of Communication, Noida, Delhi, Jaipur, Lucknow.

According to the arrest warrant issued against the owners of Amity by the German judicial authorities, the Chauhan brothers fooled credit institutions and banks.

Union Minister of State for External Affairs that time E. Ahmed, in a written reply dated May 12, 2005 to an unstarred question asked by Rajya Sabha mp RK Anand, confirmed: “…valid warrants of arrest issued by German judicial authorities against Shri Ashok Kumar Chauhan and Arun Kumar Chauhan, directors of Amity International, Ghaziabad, UP, exist and the Interpol has issued Red Corner Notices Nos. 453/1990 and 459/1998 at the request of Interpol Wiesbaden… The Embassy of Federal Republic of Germany in India has requested for legal assistance in serving documents/extradition of Ashok Kumar Chauhan and Arun Kumar Chauhan.”

The minister also stated: “As per Article 6 of the extradition treaty between the Republic of India and the Federal Republic of Germany, neither of the contracting states shall be bound to extradite its own nationals. However, as per the same article, criminal prosecution may be effected in India. Therefore, the ministry of home affairs, which is the nodal ministry in such matters has been requested to proceed in accordance with law.”

For the complete Tehelka story "Schooled in Deceit" (June 11, 2005) visit http://tehelka.com/story_main12.asp?filename=ts061105Schooled_in.asp

Business Today's B-School Ranking Year 2005 lists AMITY, Symbiosis have given better ranks than some IIM's.

In a development which exposes media houses like India Today Group and Outlook, directors of all IIMs (Ahmedabad, Banglore, Calcutta, Lucknow, Indore and Kozikode) have decided not to participate in ranking exercises carried out by various media outfits in India, in view of questionable methodology adopted in these surveys.

Amity Business School was ranked number 1 post 1990 private B-School in India by The Outlook Magazine.

Given the fact that the national dailies had been coopted by the Chauhans of Amity, did the Home Minister show the spine to initiate action against Amity owners? Did Prasar Bharati and Information & Broadcasting Minister show courage to ensure that the truth about Amity was highlighted?

Wouldn't it not have been appropriate for Union Human Resource Development Ministry to take over the functioning of Amity group of educational institutions in public interest in the light of the revelations in the Parliament and Tehelka?.

In the backdrop of Supreme Court's order on private university (February 11, 2005) as result of Prof. Yashpal's petition in the apex court, it would have been better if UGC had taken over Amity in public interest as a sensible measure.

P.S: This reminds one of how even magazines like TIME conferred Young Asian Hero status to Gautam Goswami for his "exemplary work" in flood, failing to take note of his role in multi-crore flood-relief scam.