Information is something that eludes the Mahatma Gandhi University while doling out information technology courses to even those teaching shops caught in human trafficking cases.
The University seems blissfully unaware of the criminal cases against the promoters of Kochi-based Shadwells International Business School.
It is among the 77 new off-campus centres sanctioned by the University.
As per the minutes of the Syndicate meeting held on January 17, a copy of which is available with The Hindu , Shadwells International Business School at Nirmal Infopark, Kusumagiri in Kakkanad has been permitted to offer five programmes — B.Com (Computer Applications), BBA, BCA, MBA and M.Com — for the academic year, 2013-’14.
The City Police had arrested Tom Boby, CEO, and Suby Kurian, HR manager of Shadwells, last November on the basis of a complaint forwarded by the U.S. Consulate in Chennai.
Curiously, M.C. Dileep Kumar, a Syndicate member defends MG University’s decision claiming that Shadwells was not facing charges of human trafficking when the Syndicate sub-committee inspected the institution. “We have now come across such reports and hence the sub-committee on self-financing institutions will have to take a decision on cancelling the off-campus centre sanctioned to Shadwells when it meets next time,” he said. But that still does not answer why two months after the inspection, when the Syndicate met on January 17, it failed to drop Shadwells from the list. The police probe into the human trafficking case is still on.Incidentally, the University’s decision to sanction a record number of off-campus centres was taken despite the Higher Education Department refusing to give its approval to these centres.
