MANGALURU: A lull greets visitors at the Hopeson International office in Valencia, Mangaluru, where Tony Tom worked before he was arrested at Bengaluru airport for allegedly trying to traffic 32 nurses to Armenia. Locals are curiously watching the sudden police activity in the vicinity over the last two days, as a veil of ambiguity surrounds the place.
Tony’s friend and former co-worker Jaison, however, believes he is innocent. Jaison, who has known Tony for 10 years, says foul play by a third party led to the incident. Tony was arrested at the Kempegowda International Airport on November 27 while 32 women were detained for some time when they were on their way to Armenia to enrol in a university to learn German.
Jaison told TNIE that he and his friend Justin began Hopeson International six months ago to link aspiring MBBS and engineering students to colleges in Mangaluru and Bengaluru. Tony joined the team two months later, but soon parted ways to help some nurses go abroad. “The institute has been shut for more than a month as Tony took his business to Kerala. I have applied for an individual licence,” Jaison said, talking about rent issues.
Tony had helped his relatives go abroad for MBBS course. This was the first time he was sending someone for a language course, said Jaison, adding that that was where the documentation went wrong. “While it was a German language course, the university called it ‘p received from a private institute re-medical course’.”