Syed Firdaus Ashraf in Bombay

Consider this:

March 2000: 'I want to be the Bill Gates of India's computer education industry.' -- Murtuza Mathani, Wintech CEO.
May 2001: Mathani's whereabouts unknown. Hundreds of vendors, professors and students are hunting for the Wintech CEO. All of them accuse of Mathani of having duped them. Cops are on the lookout for him

Wintech Computers, one of the fastest growing computer training institutes in India, has finally shut down its operations and it has been two weeks since the firm's chief executive officer Murtuza Mathani has been absconding.

Mathani -- with 170 operational centres all over the country, nearly 1,700 employees, and at least 40 students per institute - has not been heard of in more than a fortnight.

Millions of rupees siphoned off?

He was last seen in Baroda two weeks ago where he was arrested after a complaint by irate students. He was, however, granted bail and thereafter he has just 'disappeared'.

It is estimated that revenues of over Rs 200,000 were being generated every month by each of Wintech's institutes. The amount, running into millions of rupees, is said to have been siphoned off by Mathani.

So what went wrong? Was Mathani over ambitious? Was Wintech's growth unplanned and unsustainable? Did the raids on the institute for Oracle software piracy see it sink? Or is there more to it than meets the eye?

'Nobody's knows what went wrong'

"Nobody knows, what went wrong. We, too, are wondering how could this happen to us so soon," says Subhash Pachouri, a former employee who was a close aide of Mathani.

"The problem, I feel, is that Mathani kept all the financial dealings to himself and no one knew anything about the accounts or the fiscal position of the company, nor how the money was used," he adds.

Wintech, established in 1987, was owned by Mathani brothers: Arif, Abbas and Murtuza. The company was growing smoothly and impressively until its first brush with the law.

Pirated software, police raids

A raid on the company in September 2000 by the Bombay police and officials of Enforcers of Intellectual Property Rights -- a private investigating firm - queered the pitch for the institute.

"Wintech Computers had no licence to teach Oracle software. But they went ahead and did that regardless of the consequences. And then, one fine day, the EIPR with Bombay police raided our offices across Bombay," says Sanjay Bhatlekar another former employee.

"We asked Mathani for details and told him to shed some light on the matter. He brushed off the episode saying that, under the Indian Constitution, these raids are illegal and did not apply to educational institutes," he adds.

Says Rajiv Pulani another employee of Wintech who had quit a reputed company to join Wintech's 'business to e-commerce division', "Mathani told us that he wanted Wintech to be the Yahoo! of India. And, I thought that he meant serious business. However, when I joined the company, I had nothing to do. Then came these raid for piracy. I was upset and apprehensive and approached for explanation and assurance. But Mathani just said that there was nothing with the company."

The modus operandi

Mathani then managed to convince many of his close aides that a company named Webtech was to invest more than $1 million in Wintech.

He said that Wintech Computers intended to dilute equity by 10 per cent and tap the capital markets with an initial public offering by July 2000.

Mathani's modus operandi was masterful in its simplicity: create a major hype in the media through an advertising blitz to attract students and franchisees.

The institute never invested in real estate, nor did it pour money into having its own offices or computers. The money was only used to create a brand with a high recall: Wintech. A massive advertising campaign, with full-page ads splashed across leading newspapers, managed to generate the required excitement and interest in the institute.

The advertisements attracted students as well as franchisees. Interestingly, a franchisee had to pay Wintech Computers a huge amount of money to 'be a part of Wintech'.

In return, the franchisee would get a certain percentage of the fees collected from the students. Wintech would provide the franchisee with technical expertise, software programmes and the courseware.

No law to regulate computer education institutes

"The advertisements were so attractive and alluring that some fresh management graduates in Assam took bank and deposited the amount with Wintech Computers to become franchisees," says Vijay Jathana, convenor of Consumer Guidance Society of India

"Needless to say, these gullible fellows lost their money. The government, meanwhile, has still done nothing to stop the growing menace of such computer classes. There are no government guidelines regulating the setting up of computer institutes. Anybody with some real estate space and zero knowledge of computers can set one up," adds Jathana.

"I joined Wintech only after seeing the advertisements," says Varsha Jaikishan. "But soon after I joined, I realized that there were no trained teachers at the institute. In fact, I used to teach sometimes. I then protested to the head of the institute and asked that I be put in a good batch. But they started delaying that. After I persuaded some more, they told me that my classes will begin anew from a certain Monday."

"When I reached the institute on the scheduled day, I was shocked to find that it had actually shut its operations. I protested and went to their headquarters in Goregaon. There, too, the watchman said that many students were hunting for the proprietor of Wintech as he was absconding," says Jaikishan.

Underworld connections alleged

Some students and employees allege that the Mathanis were close to underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. These alleged links with the underworld are now being probed by the police. Giving further credibility to this charge is the information that one of Wintech's training institutes is owned by a relative of a person who's an accused in the Bombay blasts case.

"People always asked me about Mathani's background. So one day I asked him to come clean. All he said was, 'Just tell them that I have always been a businessman, and try to avoid a detailed conversation with such people'," says Bhatlekar.

The employees do not wish to talk too much about the issue. Apart from the Mathanis, they are terrified the police, the vendors and the students. They fear that all the authorities and the victims would be after their lives if it is found out that working for Wintech.

"When a firm grows very slowly, lots of questions are raised. However, when someone grows too fast no such thing happens," says another IT professional who left a reputed company to join Wintech.

Tushar Rajwade, another Wintech student who paid Rs 33,375, has lost his all money and does not know what to do?

"Frankly speaking, I do not see any future for myself after undergoing this course. The Wintech franchisee told me that he will just give me a certificate on Wintech's letterhead, which will be of no use to me."

"Who will give me a job if I produce such a certificates? All my time, effort and money were a total waste," rues Rajwade.

Fleeing to Australia?

"Rumours are that the Mathani brothers -- Arif and Abbas - have fled to Australia, and Murtuza too would soon be joining there. Unless, of course, the cops are able to arrest him," adds another employee.

Amidst the high-voltage drama, Wintech employees -- who were rendered jobless with the firm shutting down its operations -- find themselves in dire straits.

"Nobody is willing to give me a job after I quit Wintech. I have been jobless for the last eight months. And after the recession in IT industry it has become even more difficult for me to land myself a decent job. I only wish that the cops nab Mathani, so that we have the satisfaction of feeling that justice was done," adds Sanjay Bhatlekar.

(Some names have been changed to protect the identities of the former employees of Wintech)

Design: Lynette Menezes

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