NRI owner of Czech College and accused in cheating cases in Kerala still absconding

Meanwhile, aspiring students who had paid the tuition fee for the MBA programme in Czech College in 2017 and 2018 are yet to receive their money back.
John Xavier
John Xavier
Written by:

Eugine Varghese had high hopes when he applied for a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) at Czech College in the Central European country of Czech Republic. A native of Kerala’s Ernakulam district, Eugine paid the college fee of Rs 4 lakh in 2017. His hopes were, however, dashed when he attended the visa interview at the Czech Republic Embassy in New Delhi. The Embassy rejected his visa, citing that the college he applied to, Czech College, did not have the required certification. Eugine, eventually, realised that it was just the beginning of his ordeal. “After my visa was rejected, I decided to cancel my MBA plan and asked the Czech College to return the amount that I had remitted. But despite my multiple and persistent attempts, they did not return the amount,” said Eugine, who is still waiting for the Rs 4 lakh.  

Balvinder, a resident from Haryana’s Yamuna Nagar, too, was denied the visa to the Czech Republic after he applied for the MBA programme at Czech College in 2018. The External Ministry denied the visa, stating he could misuse the Schengen visa as he was not aware of the curriculum of the course. But, like Eugine and several other students, he too, had already remitted a tuition fee of 4,650 euro (approximately Rs 3.75 lakh). “Though I contacted Czech College, they did not return my tuition fee and eventually stopped responding to my calls and emails. There are many students like me who were cheated by this college,” said Balvinder, who tried to file a police complaint with the Kerala police in November this year, but was asked to file a complaint in Haryana.  

Incidentally, according to the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports in the Czech Republic, Czech College “closed its activities on 23 February 2019”. The website has not been functional since then. The college in question was being run by a Non-Resident Indian (NRI) Malayali entrepreneur, John Xavier, who is a former member of the Loka Kerala Sabha in 2018. Today, he is an absconding person who is an accused in a cheating case registered against him and others by the Kerala police, based on the complaints from several prospective students. 

Notably, it is not the first time that Czech College has courted controversy. In 2018, several students from India, a majority from Kerala, told Outlook India that they filed police complaints against John Xavier, accusing him of cheating the students by running a fake college. The students described the “campus” as a 3BHK apartment on the second floor of an old building in the capital city of Prague. With a reception and two classrooms, each batch had five to six students, reported Thufali PT for Outlook India. Although the website boasted of a hostel facility equipped with a gym, mini market and cafe among others, the students alleged that they were temporarily accommodated in a tourist home for Rs 25,000, after which they were asked to find their own accommodation. 

The Ministry of Education in the Czech Republic has listed Czech College as the “Branch of a foreign university”. It has been registered as a Self-Regulatory Organisation (SRO), as a branch of Awards for Training and Higher Education (ATHE), a UK-based qualification awarding body recognised by Ofqual (Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation), which a non-ministerial government department in England.

In an interview to NDTV in 2018, many students alleged that they failed to complete their MBA and had to take up odd jobs in Prague to pay off the education loans. John Xavier refuted these as baseless allegations, reported NDTV.  

Meanwhile, the Central Police station in Ernakulam has registered four cases against the authorities of Czech College. While two cases were registered in 2018 and two more were registered in 2019. In all four cases, the accused have been booked under section 402 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and other relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).  

The first case in 2018 names four accused: John Xavier, Geetha Abraham (reportedly Business Development Manager of the college), Libitha Lenin and Amith Kumar Yadav. The complaint was registered based on the complaint that the accused had cheated the complainant of Rs 16 lakh rupees in the guise of studying at Czech College in the Czech Republic. The chargesheet in the case was submitted to the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court in Ernakulam. 

The second case, which was registered in 2018, was handed over to the Kerala Crime Branch for investigation. The chargesheet in the case names three accused: John Xavier, Ambareesh and Libitha Lenin. The complainant accuses the college of cheating him of Rs 10 lakh. In the third case in 2019, which names John Xavier as the only accused, the complainant accused John of Rs 4 lakh fraud. The chargesheet was submitted to the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court, Ernakulam in 2019. 

The fourth case was registered in 2019 based on the complaint of a Chandigarh native, who accused John Xavier, Lekha Johnson (an employee of the college) and Geetha Abraham of defrauding him of Rs 2.50 lakh. The chargesheet in this case, too, was filed before the Judicial Magistrate Court in Ernakulam in early 2020.  

Despite the chargesheets in four cases, John Xavier has not been arrested and allegedly remains absconding, the officials at the Ernakulam Central police station told TNM.

The Czech Republic Embassy in New Delhi told TNM that since the issue is a private law dispute, the foreign mission is not entitled to intervene in the matter.   

In an email statement to TNM, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic said, “Czech College ceased its activities on 23. 2. 2019 and the Ministry has found it guilty of an offence. Because this case belongs to the jurisdiction of the civil courts, the students concerned were given contacts to legal representatives to recover the tuition fees. There were three lawyers representing the students. However, they will no longer represent the students since they have not paid any of the necessary court fees.”

Vet colleges before applying 

Meanwhile, Jayaprakash Gandhi, a career consultant, told TNM that in the current case, the students can get their money back only through a legal fight.  

Before applying to colleges, Jayaprakash Gandhi insisted that the students should contact the foreign embassy concerned to learn about the credentials of the college they would like to apply to, and that they should directly interact with the alumni before applying. He also suggested that the Indian government start a monitoring council and update the information on the portal for the sake of students.

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include the response from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic.

Related Stories

No stories found.
The News Minute
www.thenewsminute.com