Institute Of Clinical Research India [Icri] — willful and inordinate delay in refunding excess tuition fee paid on a/c of student sudhanya das registered with bengaluru campus[protected]

1. I am a senior citizen residing in Kolkata. I got admitted my daughter Sudhanya Das in ICRI Bengaluru campus in 2yr MSc Clinical Research Course paying ₹. 2 Lakh as course fee in 1st Yr ( Aug-Sept 2014. )

2. Course fee of ₹.. 2.00 Lakh for 2nd Yr. MSc was due by August 2015. Rightfully ICRI insisted on the payment. ICRI was requested to grant extension of time of one month since we were in the process of obtaining educational loan from bank to pay lump sum tuition fee for the 2nd Yr.

3. We were shocked at the blatant & forceful manner of ICRI’s insistence to clear the fees immediately failing which issuance of hall ticket would be held up to bar the student from appearing in 2nd Semester Exam.

4. We felt helpless, and had no other option but to arrange major portion of the fee so that student could appear in her exam. At that time it was given to understand that once the consolidated fee of ₹. 2.00 Lakh as would be provided by Bank as loan by issuing DD payable to ICRI, was received by ICRI, advance amount paid earlier would be refunded within 4 working days. Unfortunately, there was no written confirmation in this regard, it was all verbal over telephone.

5. ₹. 1 Lakh 40 Thousand was transferred thru. NEFT to ICRI’s VIJAYA BANK A/C with Defence Colony Br., in New Delhi as per a/c details provided by Mr. Shaik Zamir Ahmed, Admin Executive of Bengaluru campus. The total amount was transferred in three installments between 4th and 10th September 2015 as under:
i. ₹ 40 Thousand – IDIBH [protected] on[protected] from G.C. Avenue Br. of Indian Bank
ii. ₹ 75 Thousand - IDIBH [protected] on[protected] from G.C. Avenue Br. of Indian Bank
iii. ₹ 25 Thousand – SBIN[protected]n[protected] Garia Branch of SBI

6. Transaction reference of confirmation of credit of above mentioned installment amounts to ICRI’s Vijaya Bank A/C by respective Banks are available. Also, ICRI issued three separate receipts confirming crediting of the above sums totaling ₹ 1Lakh 40 Thousand.

7. In the mean time, education loan of ₹. 2, 21, 400.00 was approved by United Bank of India, Garia Stn. Rd. Br., Kolkata - 84 on[protected]. As per our request, Bank issued a DD bearing No: 157952 dated[protected] favoring ICRI payable at New Delhi. The referred DD was collected on[protected] and couriered the following day under express service to my daughter’s address in Bengaluru so as to reach by[protected] so that same could be deposited with Bengaluru Office by[protected].

8. Unfortunately, the consignment containing the DD on reaching Bengaluru, was misplaced by the courier company and the incident was immediately reported to ICRI as well as the concerned Branch o[censored]BI in Kolkata. Necessary formalities were initiated to get a duplicate DD issued of same amount from the Bank after locking the original DD to circumvent misappropriation by fraudulent means. However, after frantic searches by the courier company in its offices in Bengaluru, the consignment containing the original DD could be located after nearly three weeks in the evening hours of[protected]. Finally, the original DD was deposited with ICRI’s Bengaluru Campus, and receipt was issued by ICRI from Bengaluru Campus for ₹ 2.00 Lakh.

9. Immediately on handing over the original DD to Bengaluru Campus, we started making phone calls and sent mails to head of Bengaluru campus requesting to refund immediately the excess tuition fee amount under reference. It was informed that refund related matters was being handled by New Delhi Campus of ICRI, and advised us to take up the matter with New Delhi Office.

10. Accordingly, we started pursuing the matter by sending e-mails to New Delhi Campus from December 2015. Since December 2015 till end-January 2017 I have sent numerous e-mails numbering not less than fifty(50) to attention of M/S S.R. Dugal, Kanishk Dugal, Sandeep Nayyar. As such ICRI so far has been very very reluctant to respond to our mails. In spite of our earnest appeals in numerous e-mails over one & half year to release our rightful refund, ICRI had sent one-liner mails committing some dates to close the matter, which have never been honored.

11. In mid-December 2016 one of my ex-colleagues, Mr. V.K. Tyagi, resident of Delhi, met personally Mr. Sandeep Nayyar head of A/Cs & Finanace in ICRI’s office to know status of the refund. Mr. Nayyaar assured Mr. Tyagi that necessary approval has been obtained, and the matter would be closed shortly within two weeks. We waited as usual till mid-January 2017 for the refund to happen, but nothing came through. We started to send reminders from 11th January 2017, surprisingly to our utter disgust ICRI resorted to total silence.

12. On our request, Mr. V.K.Tyagi made another visit to ICRI Office on 20th February 2017 to pursue the matter & know ICRI’s position on the issue. It was given to understand with ‘gentlemanly assurance’ that total refund of the excess tuition fees paid will be effected by 20th March 2017, and requested to wait till such time.

13. As usual nothing happened by 20th March 2017. After relentless follow-up over mails, and desperate phone calls to ICRI’s Delhi Office, ICRI relented to release only ₹ 50 Thousand . Then on 24th April 2017 ₹ 50 Thousand was transferred to our Indian Bank at GC Avenue Br. Kolkata- 13. ICRI again gave commitments to clear the balance refund by 20th May 2017.

14. As happened earlier, time given above was another hoax. Again a fresh time of 20th June 2017 was committed to clear all the balance refund but that too turned out to be another ploy to defer the matter perpetually with implied intent to forfeit the balance refund.

15. Last commitment made has been 31st July/1st August 2017(last Monday / Tuesday). Same old story, history repeats as usual no sign of any NEFT of the refund. However, after several failed mails to Mr. S R Dugal, he responded on 31st July 2017 indicating “will try and finish these this month”. This is last e-mail communication we had with ICRI.

16. It has been unfortunate that an reputed Institute like ICRI is withholding a student’s rightful refund for no reason. Also, despite of our repeated earnest appeals explaining financial hardship caused to a retired senior citizen by delaying the refund, ICRI has failed to appreciate our situation.

17. Institute as such does not help students with campus placements. Make tall promises before admission, classes are irregular, faculties change frequently. Of late Bengaluru campus at Indira Naagar has pulled shutters, court notice is pasted all over building.

18. From the foregoing deliberations it is amply clear that ICRI has been withholding the refund amount till date wrongfully and solely for its own gain without any reason whatsoever.

20. We are contemplating judicial steps through apprpriate authority in delhi in case ICRI fails to make the balance refund by August 2017

We are awaiting ICRI's response,

It would be immensely helpful to us if your office could intervene in the matter and convince ICRI to pay the balance refund .

We are ready to discuss the matter face-to-face.

Will await your reponse

Best Regards,

PARESH CHANDRA DAS – Parent of above mentioned Student
22/2 Vivekananda Sarani
Vivekananda Park, Kamdahari,
Garia, Kolkata – 700 084
Mob: +[protected]
Phone:[protected]
e-mail: [protected]@gmail.com