Kerala Media Monitor
- Details of the Kuwait School fraud
- Strong Political Patronage in Kerala to protect scamsters
Why a former Indian Ambassador in Kuwait was recalled prematurally?
It is learned from diplomatic sources that a former Indian Ambassador to Kuwait, who tried to recover part of the School fund from the accused was prematurally called back under the influence of a senior officer in the Ministry of External Affairs. The same diplomat has been playing a dubious role in Indian school matters. His latest heroic action was to silence the Indian Ambassador in Oman who was opposed to giving favours to private businessman.. It is learned that the senior MEA bureaucrat who has recently got a promotion was instrumental in recalling the Kuwait Ambassador Prabhu Dayal. Like the former Indian Ambassador in Kuwait, the MEA senior officials wanted to recall the Indian Ambassador in Muscat too..(keralamonitor.com)Watch this space.
Asianet and Gulf Keralites
Kuwait City -- Gulf Keraliteshave been a major chunk of the overses viewers of Asianet Channel. The first private television channel in Kerala, Asianet launched its second channel targeting the non-resident Keralite (NRK) community in the Middle East, Australia and parts of Europe. Asianet Global focuses more on news, current affairs, talk shows and movies basically meant for expatriate Keralites. All ratings used to show that Asianet was Kerala's premier channel as there was no other visual platform for Malayalis around the globe to present their views. Now it is alleged that the Asianet channel has been running with part of the money looted from the students and parents of an Indian School Kuwait. And the channels top management which include some of the well known names including K.P.Mohan appears to be reluctant to rectify a great mistake and clear the channels name from the negative publicity that the Kuwait School fund scandal has generated among the Gulf Keralites.
"The magnitude of the scandal of the Kuwait Indian School is alarming. It is ridiculous that Asianet TV executive president Mohanan is also involved. He used to conduct interviews with prominent personalities about corruption and other malpractices on Asianet. Now he is involved in a scandal," said one of the NRKs in the Gulf through a letters to the editor column in an English daily. "The Kerala Congress Party should disclose the funds it received through Thomas Chandy, another suspect in the school funds scam. The allegations against Nair, former Indian ambassador to Kuwait, should be investigated. Until Mohanan is proved innocent or otherwise, he should be suspended from Asianet, otherwise, viewers will lose faith in their service. A thorough and independent inquiry should be undertaken," the Gulf Malayali said two years back, echoing the sentiment of large number of Non Resident Keralites in the Gulf.
In order to restore the eroding confidence of large number of Malayali viewers from different parts of the world, especially the Gulf region, Asianet management should disclose Mr.Mohan's stake in the company, if at all he has any and clear the channel's name from the mess. Once famous for its qualitative programmes, the channel's popularity has been declining as is evident from the large number of media awards grabbed by Kairali channel recently. This is the best proof of the deteriorating quality standards, mainly due to excessive importance given to commercial and sectarian interest. Some of its Gulf programmes in particular are nothing but substandard publicity material, which are aired as "Asianet Special Programme' by the commercial agents. If you have money to pay, any substandard programme or show will get into the Asianet TV schedule. Such a "professional" culture is developed by a coterie of corrupt managers like K.P.Mohan who are more familiar with the language of money and corruption.
It is a shame that the individuals who were involved and convicted in looting Indian School community funds in Kuwait are still holding prominent position in the channel. Asianet management appears to be in a difficult situation, as Mr. Mohan has reportedly invested a major chunk of his ill-gotten money in the channel.
Details of the Kuwait School fraud
It was two years back in November 2002 that the four prominent Keralites faced criminal charges in connection with the multi-million-rupee Kuwait-Indian School scam. While two were arrested in Kuwait, Kuwaiti authorities alerted the other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states to arrest K.P. Mohanan if he arrives in any of the Gulf states.
The four-member gang was accused of siphoning off huge amount of money from the Indian School, Kuwait where more than 5,000 Indian students are on the rolls. Students, parents and 250-odd staff members of the Kuwait-Indian School were in jitters after a preliminary scrutiny of the school accounts revealed that a sum of more than Rs 400 million was missing from the accounts. (Nearly Rupees. 40 crores!!!). Story of Indian schools in Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain, Qatar and Iran may not be different and this was only the tip of the ice berg. Many of the Indian schools in the Gulf have been functioning without any accountability and transparency. Thanks to the patronage of some of the leading Indian/Kerala politicians, the looting has been going on for a number of years. While parents are charged heavy fees by the Indian community schools which are supposed to be non profit entitities, some of the business tycoons have been making millioons.
Kuwait Chandy.
Among the two arrested in Kuwait, Mathew Philip was the former chairman of the School Ad Hoc Committee. He was in a Kuwait jail for the several months. The other accused, Thomas Chandy who runs other school in the Gulf country had several dubious dealings with the Kuwait-Indian School. He was allegedly let off on bail after he paid back the school the KD41,332 (more than Rs 6 million) he owed to them. According to the bail terms, he could not travel out of Kuwait until the investigations and court proceedings were over. Thomas Chandy is a well known "educationlist"and " industrialist"who practically owns four schools in Kuwait. He is the director of some of the leading Indian schools in Kuwait. He sold one of his schools, allegedly at an inflated price to the Indian School when Mohan was the office bearar. The Kuwaiti who is the legal owner of Indian school allegedly uses the school money for his own benefit at his will. However, huge sum of money was missing from the Indian school fund when Mohan and others were office bearers.Engaging in unfair business dealings with the schools has been a common method used to siphon off huge amount of money from Indian community schools. Mostly, the big NRKs with political connections in India developed through bribery will lease out or sell a property to run the school and get an inflated rent or lease payment. Similarly for maintenance and other silly contracts, they take inflated payments. All these have been happening with the patronage and support of Kerala politicians and some of the Indian Ambassadors. By bribing the ambassadors and other senior diplomats involved in school administration, the big NRKs cheat the Indian community and make money. This has come to light in Saudi Arabia and Oman where dubious land deals have been signed with schools.
K.P. Mohanan, a former Kuwait Times employee became the executive president of Asianet, and former Indian ambassador to Kuwait B.M.C. Nair joined hands to divert the school funds. Mohanan was the secretary of the Ad Hoc Committee, while Nair in his capacity as ambassador formed the committee and allegedly facilitated the scam. The then Indian embassy first secretary Sanjeev Kumar was also named in the case. The Kuwait Ministry of Justice issued an arrest warrant against Mohanan. The Ministry of Interior, the Kuwait City Department, subsequently produced before the court a list of his arrivals and departures in the six- month period from 8-7-1999 to 11-1-2000. Chandy had strong political support in Kerala and Central Government. Like other NRK businessmen, he used to be a regular visitor to power centres in Delhi and Thiruvananthapuram. By giving a car or election fund they can easily control the Embassy, Indian Schools and other NRK community aspects in the Gulf.
Chandy could not leave Kuwait unless he produced Mohanan in the court or paid Mohanan's KD50,000 share of the allegedly defrauded money along with its interest, which would come to Rs 9 million. Mohanan who now lives in Kerala used to be evasive to media queries and always claimed that he was trying "to help salvage the school". But the question remains - Why he did not cooperate with the Kuwaiti investigators and helped free his name from the legal tangle? His friends and well wishers in Kuwait argued that the case was fabricated by the Kuwaiti who legally owned the school and the trial was held in his absence. It is also argued that the witnesses were selectively taken to implicate these innocent people.
But the track record of Mohan is not that rosy. What was he doing in Kerala before his arrival in Kuwait? It is alleged that he went to Kuwait leaving an important job with Mathrubhoomi as its bureau chief in a district headquarter. Simultaneously he was also occupying a senior position in the Kerala Youth Congress. He went to Kuwait when an alleged financial mismanagement scandal was exposed by a rival senior Congress leader. We are not going into the details, but one thing is sure that Mohan was an active Youth Congress leader who was involved in some sort of fund mismanagement. A palatial house built by the journalist in his native place surprised many of his former colleagues who are also working as journalists in the Gulf.
Mohanan fled Kuwait when the school scandal broke while Nair,, left the Gulf country earlier. The latter has reportedly built a shopping complex in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. He has not been assigned a diplomatic post for sometimes, as the External Affairs Ministry did not given him a new posting. Nair was better known for his novels in Malayalam, which he writes under the pen name Mohanan Chandran. Though Chandy was let off on bail on a payment of Rs 65 lakh, he was not able to leave Kuwait . There are several other crimes related to the huge school fund scam, according to the schools Council of Elders. A lion's share of the schools KD 400,000 fund is reported to have been siphoned off to the personal bank accounts of Mohanan and others.When the Kuwait War started, the money was transferred to their personnel accounts. The huge fund was with the Indian Embassy, with the Ambassador acting as the custodian. When the crisis started, the ambassador appointed a new committee and new Kuwait and handed over the money to them. Even though the Kuwaiti owns the school as the license is issued in his name, the school is virtually managed by Indians like Chandy. According to his well wishers, Chandy had nothing to do with the Indian School except that he had sold a school to the Indian school, allegedly with an inflated price.
Mohan is a journalist and some of the jealous Indians only gave testimony against him, says one leading Malayali advocate in Kuwait. According to him, the court trial took place in a lower court and they have chance for trial in two more higher courts. Nobody from the other party approached the Indian Embassy to extreidte Mohan or trial him in the local court, says his well wishers. "Indian Government did not come to know about this case. They cannot jump and extreidte and Indian citizen," he says.
Some of the Indian Ambassadors posted in the Gulf are so corrupt that they go to any extent to receive favours from the business community. Some of them have signed crucial documents on the last day of their service in the Gulf country. In one of the Gulf countries, a former ambassador is alleged to have taken a bribe equivalent to Indian Rs. 35 lakhs to sanction a private school to a businessman. One Ambassador used to call up each and every company in the Gulf country before his transfer giving a clear indication that he expected some giftrs from them. "It is a shame that the Indian Ambassadors are going to that level. He may get a small gift worth Rs. 10,000 from the companies. At the same time he creates a negative impression about India in the minds of the Arab businessmen who owns the company." This Ambassador's wife was also involved in major fund raiwing drive for "social services". These ambassadors normally wine and dine with the rich businessmen, leaving the large number of Indian community interest at their mercy. However, those who work sincerely for the community interest are either punished or harassed jointly by the business community, the so called community leaders and even the top bureaucracy.
Strong Political Patronage in Kerala to protect scamsters
The arrest of Thomas Chandy, who is credited with political ambitions and is a known financier of the Congress party, was welcomed by the new managing committee of the 40-year-old school and the school's Council of Elders consisting of Babu Thumpamon, K.T.V. Ramakrishnan and Punnose Padickal as also several social activists. Chandy fell into the police net on his return to Kuwait after a sojourn in Kerala. Mohanan cannot be formally extradited from India in the absence of an extradition treaty between the two countries. However, according to Babu Thumpamon, the Kuwaiti authorities had sought Interpol's help to track him down. Chandy was a known supporter of Kerala Congress leader K.Karunakaran and his son Muraleedharan. According to one report, he allegedly paid Rs. 20 lakh to finance just a support rally of the Congress leader.
In one instance of misappropriation established by the Kuwaiti investigators, ambassador Nair is accused of allegedly transferring school funds KD1114,481 (Rs160 million) and its compound interest from 1990 to 1998 to the private accounts of Mathew Philip, Mohanan and S.Z. Shah, a Gulf-based businessman, who was treasurer of the Ad Hoc Committee formed by the ambassador. In June 1998, Mohanan opened an account with the Bank of Kuwait and the Middle East (BKME) to deposit the transferred funds. It is said to have subsequently become the mother account for various other dealings. It was from this account that Mohanan transferred KD 32,500 to Mathew Philip's account. It is alleged that Ambassador Nair and First Secretary Sanjeev Kumar received KD30,000 and KD20,000 respectively in cash from Mohanan's withdrawal of KD50,000 from his account.
According to Babu Thumpamon, "the Kuwaiti investigators have found that the Nair-Mathew Philip-Mohanan axis made out documents showing a payment of KD350, 000 to the then sponsor of the school Hind Al Naqueeb, by the school committee". According to the Parent and Teachers Association the Kuwaiti had only asked the committee to provide a bond of KD100,000 to cover any future loss or damages. Indian schools in Kuwait are owned by Kuwaiti citizens who give the right to run schools to Indian community members. School license is given only to Kuwaiti citizens, said Keralites in Kuwait.
One of the accused, Thomas Chandy has been a staunch supporter and financier of the Karunakaran faction of Congress. When he was arrested in Kuwait in connection with the massive embezzlement of Indian School funds, many eyebrows were raised. It was Karunakaran who launched a posh house boat belonging to Chandy named Rajivji in Alappuzha. Chandy also played high profile role at the Nehru Trophy Boat Race in the Punnamada Lake. Even though he wanted to conduct elections through the Kerala Congress panel, the Kuwait School controversy was raised quite often to prevent him from getting a seat. Finally he had to stand for election as an independent Congress candidate. Both Mohanan and Chandy, both supporters of the Congress party, have been trying to hush up the case using their newly acquired money power and political connections.
Kairali - Asianet TussleThe Indian School Kuwait scandal became the major issue in the media war between the Kairali television channel and Asianet. When an Asianet report suggested an unholy link between the liquor lobby with Kairali, the Democratic Youth Front of India (DYFI) national president N.N. Krishnadas, MP challenged Asianet executive president K.P. Mohanan to deny his involvement in the scandal. Krishnadas alleged that not only Mohanan, but also Asianet chairman Reji Menon was among "international criminals who were facing Interpol investigations". He challenged both of them to initiate legal steps against him if the charges were false.
Reji Menon was "an international criminal who has undergone jail term for criminal offences". According to Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) sources, an Interpol inquiry about Reji Menon was going on. Allegations and counter allegations nick named the two channels as "Arrack Channel", and "Mafianet". Mohanan's links with some Congress party leaders reportedly helped him to get the executive president's post in Asianet. Reji Menon himself announced immediately after Mohanan's appointment that Mohanan's induction was aimed at setting at rest speculations that the then Asianet staff members were mostly left-leaning. The Channel has been gradually adopting a different tactics to get political patronage from the central and state governments. If reports about Interpol and CBI inquiry about top Asianet brass is true, they managed to get out of the problem. What has been the magic formula used by the channel to silence the CBI and Interpol investigations? Editorial support to the political party which controls the central government was the easiest way out? The left lening channel started taking a 90 degrees turn to support political leaders who could not make an entry in Kerala politics for long. K.P.Mohan started interviewing all the big wigs including some religious leaders and Saffron politicians...(keralamonitor.com)
Watch this space.
ASIANET PRESENTS Rs.7.25 CRORE CHEQUE TO Vajpayee- April 2, 2002.
In a bid to express solidarity with and mitigate the sufferings of the quake-affected people in Gujarat, a four-member delegation of the Asianet Communications Limited led by its Chairman, Dr. Raji Menon, met PM and presented a cheque of Rs.7.25 crore to the Prime Minister, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee for PM’s National Relief Fund, here today. The amount has been collected from 42,000 viewers of the Malayalam language satellite channel, both in India and abroad, particularly from the Gulf region.
Asianet created the ‘Asianet Gujarat Earthquake Relief Fund’ to collect, tally and monitor the contributions pouring in from the viewers. While viewers from India contributed approximately Rs.4.67 crore, the NRIs accounted for a contribution of Rs.2.58 crore. While some viewers sent spontaneous contributions, Asianet had earlier run appeals seeking contributions for the Gujarat quake victims. (keralamonitor.com)
