FIR against design institute after alumnus alleges fraud
NEWDELHI: The police have registered a case against the management of a Delhi-based design institute after one of its former students alleged that the organisation refused to give him his degree and offered “fake” ones to some others.
Samaksh Dhir, who claimed to have studied at the VIDM Institute of Design and Management, also alleged that the facilities provided by the institute were pale in comparison to what was promised.
The institute provides courses in fashion and interior designing, among others. It has branches across India and in Delhi and is operated from Sarita Vihar.
Based on Dhir’s statement, a case of cheating and criminal breach of trust was registered at Sarita Vihar police station in south Delhi on Monday, said Chinmoy Biswal, deputy commissioner of police (south-east).
“During the initial probe, we questioned the institute’s founder Udit Agarwal and others. Prima facie, the allegations of cheating were substantiated and so we registered an FIR,” Biswal said.
Hindustan Times tried to reach the institute for its version, but all phone numbers provided on its website were either unreachable or out of service. An email sent to them did not yield a response. When HT visited the building where the institute is located, a security guard said the premises was vacated a few months ago.
Dhir alleged that in 2014, when he enrolled for the three-year interior designing course at the institute, he was promised an “international faculty”, “compulsory training in Italian and French languages”, 100% placement, and a tie-up with a reputed foreign institute.
But Dhir alleged that most of these promises were untrue and the institute wasn’t even affiliated to any university. “There were supposed to be 15 students in my batch. But, in reality, we were only three, one of whom dropped out after the first year,” he said.
Dhir claimed that the situation worsened after the first year and the non-teaching staff began taking classes. “At the end of three years, they couldn’t even give me a degree. I found out that degrees offered to a student of another course were fake,” Dhir alleged.