Ex-student's father to sue Pune college
Wednesday, July 28, 2010 1:54 IST
Mumbai: Vasudev Kanuga,a resident of Koregaon Park, Pune, has decided to file a defamation suit against Wigan and Leigh College (WLC), Pune, and its Delhi Campus chief executive officer, Molobika Sengupta, for allegedly accusing his daughter Karishma of threatening to ‘blackmail’ WLC India.
In July 2009, Karishma had won a case filed against WLC in the Pune district consumer dispute redressal forum(consumer court) after she was forced to abandon her Bachelor (honours) in Mass Media course at the WLC as the institution was not approved by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).
“Karishma had to abandon the course halfway as there were no regular lectures taking place and we were shocked when we got to know that the institution was not approved by the AICTE.In the whole mess, Karishma lost an entire academic year,” Kanuga said.
He said it was later that they decided to file a case against the institute in the Pune District Consumer Dispute Redressal Forum in Jan 2008.
After Karishma won the case, the forum directed WLC to refund the fees of Rs1.28 lakh, along with 9%interest, as well as compensation of Rs50,000 as Karishma had lost an academic year, he said. Karishma then went to Mumbai to pursue her degree in mass media and secured the degree this year with distinction.
Kanuga’s case in the Pune District Consumer Dispute Redressal Forum was represented by the city-based consumer welfare
organisation Grahak Hitvardhini.
According to Kanuga, the family was deeply hurt when a report appeared in a local daily last year quoting Sengupta as saying, “She (Karishma) threatened that she would approach the court and the press, which was blackmail.”
Sengupta said, “I do not think I have made any defamatory statement against Kanuga.”
