CHENNAI: Around 1,200 students from across the country who landed at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) here on Tuesday were in for a shock after learning that the summer internship programme that they had paid for was in no way connected with the prestigious institution. The angry students staged a protest and later filed a police complaint, following which three persons, including a person who claimed to be an IIT alumnus, were arrested.
Situated inside the IIT-M Research Park, Techizer India, a UP-based company, offered a paid summer internship in courses like Android Application Development, Ethical Hacking & Information Security, Robotics and Embedded C, Cyber Forensic and PHP.
The programme was advertised as being conducted at the IIT-M-RP, and applicants were told that classes would be handled by IIT professors. The students were charged between `2,000 and `3,000 for the ‘course’, which they had to pay online.
There was nothing amiss on Monday, when the first batch of more than 500 students commenced their internship. “The first class went off without any hitch. The class was held at the IIT-Research Park as we were informed. But when the students started questioning the certification, we were told that it would be given by Techizer (the organiser) and not by IIT-Madras,” said Veera Sai Raja from Hyderabad, one of the students.
When the students arrived on Tuesday morning, a notice was put up by IIT-RP authorities which said the programme has been shifted to another venue and the institute was not associated with the company. Guards at the research park refused to let the students in, and Amrendar Pal, the person who claimed to be the head of the firm, was unavailable on phone.
The agitated students began protesting outside the research park, and later complained to the police about the incident.
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