Cheating case: Super-30’s Anand Kumar told to pay ₹50,000

Four students from northeast say there is no transparency in functioning of institution

Super 30 founder Anand Kumar. File

Bihar-based mathematician Anand Kumar, of Super-30 fame, has been directed to appear before the Gauhati High Court on November 28, besides paying ₹50,000 to the “guardians and student” who appeared for a scheduled hearing on Monday, in a case of cheating against him. The Division Bench issued the directive after they were “displeased at the non-compliance” with a November 19 order directing him to be present before the court on Monday.

In that order, the bench had said, “We shall be constrained on issuing bailable warrant of arrest for his production” if Mr. Kumar did not appear on November 26.

The case is based on a 2018 petition by four students from the northeast, now studying at the Indian Institute of Technology-Guwahati. They accused Mr. Kumar of cheating and said there was no transparency in the functioning of Super-30.

Mr. Kumar had conceptualised Super-30 along with former Bihar DGP Abhayanand to teach poor students from Bihar to crack the IIT JEE. The two parted ways in 2008.

The petitioners alleged that a large number of students from the northeast, who had approached Mr. Kumar for enrolment in Super-30, were admitted by him in a “coaching institute by the name of Ramanujan School of Mathematics” by charging ₹33,000 per student. They suspected Mr. Kumar was not running any Super-30 classes after 2008 and did not devote sufficient time to the IIT aspirants who took admission in the school.

The petitioners also said false claims made by Mr. Kumar amounted to cheating IIT aspirants and their guardians as well as the people of the country. They said Mr. Kumar had in 2018 claimed 26 out of 30 students who cleared the IIT entrance exam in 2018 were from his Super-30, “but till today the Respondent No 8 [Mr. Kumar] has not disclosed the names of the 26 IIT entrance qualified students”.

On September 21, 2018, the Gauhati High Court had issued notice to Mr. Kumar and Mr. Abhayanand. While the former sought adjournment, the latter in an affidavit in January said he had no knowledge of what transpired in Super-30 since 2008.