HC restrained anybody from circulating any maligning content against the institute
CEO R. Bhoominathan and other representatives at a press conference at Chennai Amrita on Monday. (Photo: DC)
Chennai: The Madras high court came to the aid of Chennai-based Amirta International Institute of Hotel Management which received flak in the social media over the suicide of one of its students in February this year.
In an interim injunction passed on Friday (July 24), the HC restrained anybody from circulating any maligning content against the institute.
Terming the negative publicity against the institute an act of conspiracy by competitors, the group's CEO, R. Bhoominathan claimed the institute is in no way responsible for the
suicide of one of their students.
K. Karthik Prabhu (22), a student at the institute’s OMR campus, committed suicide at a private hostel outside the premises on February 7 this year. Two months later, his father, S. Kannan approached the Thuraipakkam police station with an audio recording demanding action against a few of his hostel mates for abetting his son’s suicide.
“The incident happened outside our premises in a private hostel where our student was staying,” the CEO said adding students are referred to accommodations near the campus based on their requests for cheaper places to stay.
“We are not responsible for what happened in a private hostel,” he said. The suicide took place after he was allegedly pulled up by his hostel mates when they found him stealing,” Bhoominathan quoted an investigation officer as saying.
On the request of the student’s father for refund of fees, we even transferred an amount of Rs 65, 000 on humanitarian grounds, he said.
However, videos featuring the deceased’s father and another person, Ramakrishnan who claimed to be part of an organization called International organization for Human Rights with the logo of the institute in the background was uploaded by a media organization under deceiving titles in May.
Videos titled ‘Amirta (spelling) Kalluriyil Uyirizhandha Maanavanin Thandayin Kumural,” and Chennai Amirta Kalluriyin Mugathirai Kizhindhadhu,” was circulated on sites such as Facebook, Youtube and WhatsApp.
“For the past six years, we have been giving a professional touch to a course which did not have much awareness among the public. At a juncture, when there was a lot of positives’ going for us, this incident coincided with our admission process creating a lot of negative publicity. So, we sought the legal route,” said Balaji Sheshadri, a representative.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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