Wintech does the vanishing act, again!

Wintech Computers in did it again! About 100 students

enrolled in various information technology and computer courses with Wintech

Computers in Indore are twiddling their thumbs nervously as the company has

suddenly closed its training center in the city without giving anyone a clue as

to what the reasons was.

When the students arrived at the center in the morning for

their regular classes, they were dumbfounded to find the center locked and a

notice stuck on the main door announcing the abrupt closure of the center.

All attempts by the students to contact the Wintech

Computer’s, Murtaza Mithani, Chairperson-cum-MD,  also came to a naught,

as did the attempt to contact Mohib Patel, VP. The cell phone numbers, when

called, were switched off, and similar attempts to call up the company's Mumbai

office also proved a unfruitful.

Students are visibly upset and agitation is an

understatement, especially given the fees that each one them gave for joining

these courses, ranging from Rs 17,000 to Rs 72,000, depending on the course. It

is all the more galling since the company has closed shop without even having

awarded them the course completion certificates and diplomas that would

otherwise have at least help them to get jobs in the city.

It is being said that Wintech Computers has also closed

shop overnight in the New Delhi and Kolkata. The Wintech Computer center was

launched in January, 2000, with great fanfare in the hey days of the IT wave

sweeping the state, with Indore city being no exception. The center at Bisco

House was later shut down and students shifted to another center at Princess

Pride, near Narayan Kothi. The courses on offer went down well with the student

and professional community alike, and included FOCUS, SMART, Wintech Certified

Software Developer (WCSD) and similar courses in e-commerce. Madhvi Prasad,

Center Manager, Wintech Computers, is said to have told anxious students that

instructions to close shop in the city came from senior management based at

Mumbai. It is also being alleged that the owners have also removed even the

computers in these centers.

After opposition from even the police in the city, the

students have finally managed to lodge a FIR under Section 420 of the IPC

against the company at the Tukoganj police station. Cases have been registered

Mayura Karmarkar, RM; Madhvi Prasad, CM; and Hyder Ali, Regional Accountant.

Interestingly, the closure notice at the Wintech Computers

center reads as follows: “The office will remain closed from tomorrow onwards,

i.e. From May 17th, 2001, as per the instruction received from the head office

till further correspondence”

Wintech Computers, a Mumbai-based computer training

institute, have, over the past 1-2-years, closed down their operations in

several cities, including Bhopal, overnight, and fled. In the process, they have

knowingly swindled thousands of students of both their careers and their

parents' hard-earned money totaling lakhs. It is also reported that police in

cities like New Delhi and Kolkatta are hot on the trail of top company

functionaries in connection with the same. In October 2000, the Kolkata police

had arrested three top functionaries of the company for having swindled more

than 3000 students of a huge sum of money in the form of course fees. The same

month, Mathani, was accused of using pirated versions of the Oracle software at

his computer-training institute at Mumbai. The Mumbai police had also raided the

Nariman Point and Andheri offices and reportedly recovered pirated software CDs

of the Oracle software, which would otherwise have cost lakhs if bought legally

under license.

All said and done, there is also the question of our

general public having short memories and playing down these incidents.

Otherwise, while all this was happening around them and being written about in

the press in bold letters, parents and students still flocked to Wintech

Computers. And join their courses, apparently either oblivious to the fate

awaiting them, or perhaps living in that wonderful Indian notion that whatever

happens, happens to my neighbor and cannot happen to me.

Now we cry ourselves hoarse after the spilt milk.

(CNS)