IIT-G students file PIL against Super 30 founder Anand Kumar, call him fraud

Four months before the release of a biopic on his life starring Hrithik Roshan, Patna-based mathematician Anand Kumar has found himself at the centre of yet another controversy. Four students of IIT Guwahati have claimed that Anand Kumar, the founder of coaching institute Super 30, is a fraud.

On September 21, the Guwahati High Court issued a notice to Kumar, the founder of the educational programme 'Super 30', to reply to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by the students. Senior advocate Ashok Saraf, appearing for the four IIT students, submitted before the court that, "Because of the wrong projection given by Anand Kumar each year a large number of students from the Northeast and other parts of the country approach him with full faith and hope that Anand Kumar, who seems to be an IIT Baba, will help them in qualifying the IIT entrance exam."

"But after reaching there, Anand Kumar makes the students take admission in his coaching institute, namely Ramanujam School of Mathematics, by charging Rs 33,000 per student in the name of teaching them," Saraf said.

Founded in 2002, Patna's Super 30 claims that it selects 30 meritorious students each year from economically backward sections of society and provides them free coaching for the IIT entrance examination. The institute made headlines in 2008 with 100 per cent success rate in the IIT-Joint Entrance Exam (IIT-JEE). Though the institute started to make a mark in 2004, it was for the first time in 2008 that all 30 students picked up for Super-30 batch qualified the IIT JEE. The group also made it to the Time Magazine in 2010.

Amit Goyal, who is the advocate-on-record for the petitioners, said it is mentioned in the PIL that "Most of the time, Anand Kumar travels to different places in the country and outside India. He does not devote sufficient time to the IIT aspirants who took admission in Ramanujam School of Mathematics".

"Upon inquiry by the four IIT-G students it was revealed that after 2008, Anand Kumar is not running any so-called 'Super 30' classes. Whenever IIT entrance exam results are announced,



Kumar appears before the media with some students of the Ramanujam School of Mathematics and other students claiming that they are Super 30 students and have qualified in the IIT entrance exam," Goyal said.

Saraf submitted before the court that the false propaganda created by Anand Kumar is not only cheating IIT aspirants and their guardians but also others.

"Wrong information has been uploaded by Wikipedia on its website in an unedited version and the same is also published by a national newspaper and it is easily available on social media," Goyal said.

According to the petition, this year too, Anand Kumar has claimed that 26 out of 30 students from his 'Super 30' group have cleared the IIT entrance exam. "But till now, he has not disclosed the names of the 26 students who had qualified for the IIT entrance," he said.

The Guwahati High Court also issued a notice to former Bihar Director General of Police (DGP) Abhiyanand who had co-founded 'Super 30' in 2002. A division bench of the High Court, comprising Chief Justice (acting) Arup Kumar Goswami and Justice Ajit Borthakur, issued the notice to Kumar and directed him to reply to the allegations made in the PIL. The matter will be taken up by the court again after eight weeks.

This is not the first time such allegations have been made against Super 30. In July, a PIL was filed in Patna High Court seeking a CBI probe into the functioning of Kumar's group. High court advocate Manibhushan Pratap Sengar claimed in his petition that Kumar showed students of other institutes as his own. The petition also alleged that he never released the list of students before the IIT exam so it cannot be verified that those students who had qualified were the same ones who had studied at Super 30.

Sengar has sought inquiry into the financial activities, assets and transactions of Super 30 and the Ramanujan Institute of Mathematics at Kumhrar, Patna.

Several former students in the past also claimed that Kumar took a cut from other coaching centres as he passed on students to other institutes.