By Nicholas Stix
When reading the following article, keep in mind that Pawan Kumar Anjaiah was a murderer, which the uncredited author does his best to bury. Not that Danielle Mehlman was a terribly sympathetic character, either. She was playing Kumar for a fool, turning him into a human ATM, while giving him nothing in return. Something had to give, and Kumar ultimately stabbed her to death, before committing suicide with an overdose of pills.
Since then, his family has conjured up a crazy conspiracy theory, which doesn’t even make sense on its own terms: Kumar’s colleagues were jealous of his superior computer engineering prowess. What does this “theory” have to do with him murdering Danielle Mehlman and killing himself? Are we supposed to assume that Kumar’s “jealous” colleagues were “inferior” Americans, rather than other second-rate Indian H-1Bs?
Dumb, dumb, dumb.
The family's newest demand is that they refuse to accept Kumar's corpse, unless he is cleared of Mehlman's murder. Apparently, in their lack of shame that fail to realize that they making worldwide fools of themselves. They are also drawing unwanted attention to h-1B sweatshops like Cognizant.
To Cognizant: Stick with top-flight American talent, and save yourself such well-deserved headaches.
US techie suicide: Cognizant gives out their point of view
Saturday, June 30, 2012, 12:58 [IST]
OneIndia News
Bangalore, Jun 30: The [N.S.: murder-]suicide case of the Bangalore-based techie from Cognizant Pawan Kumar Anjaiah is turning up to be a rather murky affair. His death in a New Jersey hotel was reportedly due to a "drug overdose".
He was allegedly involved in the murder of a US woman Danielle Mehlman. [He wasn’t “allegedly involved” in Danielle Mehlman’s murder; he murdered her!] His subsequent suicide could have made it an open and shut case, but for the contradictory statements by Pawan's family members. [What do their self-serving statements have to do with the price of tea in China?]
In spite of the suicide note, the content of which is not revealed, the family is not ready to buy the suicide theory. They are also pointing fingers at the employer, Cognizant and accused them of not doing enough to bring back the body soon.
In the wake of such accusatory statements, Cognizant has made its stand clear through a press release that reads -
"Pawan Kumar's family members, along with two lawyers, met our HR officials on Friday evening. Our HR officials reminded them that unfortunately no further action can be taken in bringing Pawan Kumar's body back unless and until the family signs and returns the forms required by the New Jersey Medical Examiner's office for release of the body. Cognizant has no influence on this requirement. Unfortunately, as of last evening, the family has decided not to sign the forms to allow the return of the body back to India.
Further, the family members and the lawyers accompanying them demanded that all reports from the U.S. should accompany Pawan Kumar's body, including the autopsy and inquest reports, as a precondition to signing the forms.
They also insisted that the company take ownership for obtaining details of Pawan Kumar's personal loans, a copy of the suicide note, bank balance details, among other things to which the company simply does not have the right to gain access. In addition, the family wanted Cognizant to sponsor a visit to the U.S. by two of Pawan Kumar's family members and advisors.
Even though we did reach out to many of the U.S. authorities concerned for the details requested by the family, we were not able to obtain the details due to the ongoing criminal investigation or personal privacy regulations.
While the Cognizant senior leadership teams in India and the U.S., along with the Indian consulate officials, have worked tirelessly, doing all that we and they can to facilitate bringing back the remains of Pawan Kumar to India, liaising with multiple agencies [including the Medical Examiner's Office, District Attorney, Indian Consulate in New York, Funeral Homes] believing that the most important thing the family wanted was the return of Pawan Kumar's body, we are surprised with the frequent demands that are made by the family, some as a precondition to allowing the return of Pawan Kumar's body.
While Cognizant is doing what it can to help the family members get what Pawan Kumar is entitled to given the circumstances of his death, we find many of the demands are simply not within our control.
Cognizant has done and is doing everything in our power to assist the family with the return of the body. We are still waiting for the family to sign the necessary paperwork so that we can facilitate the return of the body as quickly as possible at Cognizant's cost. We are working closely with the Indian Consulate in New York who have also been in touch with the family members."
29 comments:
To be a crime writer, one really dont need much intelligence in the traditional sense. One needs to be old and some imagination with basic English which ofcourse any American has. Nicholos said that they both have same nose(Pawan and Mehlan) which is a very reasonbale observation. However appear to go beyond his domain of expertise(?????) in suggesting Cognizant to appoint only Americans..What a luaghable suggestion, like obama pampering schools that produce strippers. He appear to suggest that by appointing only Americans, all crimes on americans can be aovided.
Not sure , if anybody is donating for his cause and with brain size of an ant.
He is a murderer and he did admit to it in the suicide note. Also stating he is killing himself for bringing shame upon his family. And never any mention of remorse for what he did to my daughter. But this family even after they receive the suicide note will undoubtedly still refuse to believe the fact that their son is guilty.
I am an Indian..Some of my country men (older generation) do not really know how the law works out here..This is really unfortunate, but when you loose the only bread winner of the house and your only son, it is tough on you..They have not committed any crime, please try to be respectful.
This guy definitely killed the whore, which he should have never done..A couple of punches should have been enough..Problem is many indians from the rural areas think American women are easy lay (thanks to Hollywood and all the one night stands it potrays)..they only come to realize it is not the case when they come here..Reak and Reel are two different things.This attitude and the women using them is a dangerous combination.
Atleast, release the doc certificate of death, autopsy reports, suicide note etc. It is impossible to clear him from the case. Whatever has been done has been done for whatever reasons. He is a murderer.
Cognizant should be sued in a civil suit for contributing to Danielle's death. They brought the employee who seems to have been mentally unstable to the US, most likely did not filter their internet connection which allowed him to contact her. People have sued bars for allowing them to drink too much and driving. A case can be made here for their liability.
Dude, Nicholas Stix, if H1bs are so second grade to you..just answer one question - why is an H1B consultant paid the same amount as a US citizen for the same job. I recruit for SAP. We decided to only take citizens and tried this for a year and just gave up. There is just no talent pool. First we need to increase the number of graduates in the right fields.
There are many talented people who started off as H1Bs and became CEOs
Dear Anonymous Liar,
“Dude, Nicholas Stix, if H1bs are so second grade to you..just answer one question - why is an H1B consultant paid the same amount as a US citizen for the same job.”
I have never heard of an “H1B consultant,” but I have never heard of any H-1B worker being paid the same as an American citizen for the same job. To do so would defeat the entire purpose of the H-1B non-immigrant visa.
“We decided to only take citizens and tried this for a year and just gave up. There is just no talent pool.”
Well, that’s definitely a lie, and a whopper, at that! There are over one million highly trained, American tech workers who are unemployed (or who had to find employment in other fields), who are better qualified than the Indians the sweat shops have been bringing over for years.
“First we need to increase the number of graduates in the right fields.”
Criminals like Bill Gates have been perjuring themselves for years in Congressional testimony, by repeating that very lie. Gates should be sued by every American STEM grad who could not find work in his field, or who was replaced by a foreigner, due to the abuse of non-immigrant visas.
Have you no shame, sir? Have you no shame?
P.S. Please send the list of the “many talented people who started off as H1Bs and became CEOs”
Nicholas....are you dumb?
The case is still under investigation and you are calling him murderer!!!
@Nick,
Sick are the people whom you should be ashamed of like the Union Carbide CEO Anderson hiding from Indian courts and escaped after cheating the police after killing thousands of the people in Bhopal Gas tragedy and Shame on the your US court that pronounced there is fault with the company even after providing elaborate evidence of the materials used by the comapany which was a direct cause of the tragedy. Sir, that is what you should be ashamed of and not on the hard working H1B workers who work to make your CEOs and wall street filthy rich. If you have problems with H1B folks, contact your senators and threaten them. We will also do them with our politicians against your garbage companies that sell filthy trash in our country like Coca Cola, Burger King or Pizza Hutt. -Anon not related to the one posted above.
@Nicholos stix - where did you get that number from "1 million american tech workers" had to change carriers. I am a Computer Science graduate (University of Illinois)and had to work on H1B, as that is the only visa to get if you Green card holder or a citizen. I know none of my american friends who had to change carriers. You are the Liar, a fear monger-er and a clearly a racist.
Here are list of 8 CEOs of Indian Origin of top American companies http://www.forbes.com/2009/12/17/indian-ceos-united-states-forbes-asia-indian-ceos.html
We have the brains dude and it is a world market, you cannot escape that..so compete and win and stop complaining. If you want to sew Bill Gates, he can just move more business to India... Globalization is just unavoidable.
NIcholos - I have no reason to lie...That is the truth. If I lie here public opinion won't change overnight. Get me one good SAP FICO american consultant..I am in the business of recruiting and I would love to hire an American, instead of dealing with all the legal nonsense with H1Bs. We pay the same at our company and pay is based on skill set and not immigration status..This is the case with H1Bs who are already here. But, Companies like Cognosent may have cheap labor from India on L or H visa..But they are cheap only if they are here for short term. If they are long term consultants (H), then they have to get paid the same. There are labor laws for that (we need to get labor certification for each H1B applicant - USCIS clearly states that) and hence cannot pay any less than american would get.
There is no Lie in here..Its more legal hassle to get H1B employees for the same pay than american employees.
Well, there are lot Indian CEOs (half of the jobs produced in Silicon Valley are by starts ups started by immigrants) and lie is H1B labor is cheap. L1 visa labor may be cheap, but for H1b you need a labor certification and wages should be paid as per American Market and skill set and years of experience. This makes it impossible for H1Bs to be cheap. They are enforcing and scrutinizing this even more after all the noise in the media about H1Bs..
To add to my previous comment, even though L1 labor is cheap, these bastards like Cognoscent or many Indian Consultancies, do charge the same to client if the worker is here in the US and pocket the remaining money. The guy who really works does not get paid much on L1. The client (the end company) only can save money by outsourcing.
Please refer to USCIS for all the rules and do not just write up without doing any research.
My dear Nicholos babi, Please send the list of 1 million American unemployed(Dont include Mehlans' mother ex-husband and step dad of Mehlan who was laid off at plumbing company at 48yrs age), so we can organise a training programme to get them employed at MICROSOFT with the expenses born from the donations collected by you. Because for every click of mine you are making. You are trying to simplify the things that are complex and therefore , I would also simpliffy a complex concept that needs thousands of pages enumerations.
This is the payback time for all white men for the reasons......They have colonised and taught the Enlgish to Indians...result the call center jobs that are worth $3/hr are outsourced , instead of playing $15/hr to Americans who any way use this second income of the family on drugs, cigarettes etc in addition to resorting to number of tantrums. Please read Fareed Zakarias' "The rise of the rest" published in 2005.Also read the headlines in the front page of Wall Street Journaldated 07/05/2012, where it reads"Hair cutting jobs are safe from exporting".
I can povide any number of anectodal evidence of the things in store for you in 2032( at 70 yrs of your age). The salient features are :
1)Already most of the sports are dominated by Blacks and in 2032, the only whites that will be in sports is cleaning the basket ball floors and watching the games in Sports bars.
2)Most of the Tech jobs will be handled by Indians forthe simple reasons that India has young population and the education is very cheap that was made unnecessairyl expensive by the Americans. In any case most of these jobs, though high paying are not very hightech in the traditional sense and can be easily done by School kids of India. You better do away with this non-sensical concept of 4 year degree that are good to perform the jobs of store manager/Associates of Best BUy,Wendys,Mcdonald,wal Mart etc.
3)It is time that all the white Americans go back to farms, which are the only one available for them for the additional reasons of restricting Mexican immigration.
The world runs in cycles, you cant' stop it even if make any amount of valiant efforts propping up the Self esteem of American by saying"Indentured workers, Sweat Shops, Hi-B worker etc et".
I have to take to the route of Anonymous as your website is not user freindly....
By the way ,Both Mehlan and Pawan doent have any respect to easch other.
She thought, This guy with such a good job is interested in me eventhough I have child(and being a stripper)...but he may have told her that he is not really interested in her but wanted help in immigration,which may really hurt the ego of a low self esteem woman for her to ill treat him. He may have spent nearly $15000 K in tow weeks on her......The result is.... two mediocre human beings helped stereotyping the whole community.,
VISHNUUUUUU
@Anon who posted at Tuesday, July 3, 2012 11:14:00 PM EDT
Union Carbide was 49% owned by the Indian government and Indian investors at the time of the 1984 tragedy. The entire staff and engineers on site were Indian. For all practical purposes, the company was Indian. So who would you find liable ? The US CEO or the Indian government that was looking for a scapegoat for their own incompetence. You can verify these facts. Wikipedia and is your friend
Clearly many Americans, in this case Mr Nicholas are Xenophobic with false superiority complexes which basically translates into racism. But that has unfortunately been a Caucasian vice since the beginning of mankind. Ofcourse it isnt just a Caucasian thing, pretty much ingrained across the spectrum to some level, but since this blog is worded by Mr Stix, I will single out Americans.
Besides the unfounded arrogance of being superior beings, many Americans also are unfortunately ignorant and devoid of knowledge. As demonstrated by Mr Stix here. FYI HI-Bs are paid the SAME as any comparable american worker. they HAVE to, it's the DOL requirement, else the company violates status and faces charges. and FYI, purpose of an H1-B isnt to get cheap labor, it is to SUPPLEMENT the american workforce and FILL gaps that an AMERICAN CAN'T. The basic H1-B application requires PROOF that the job being applied for was advertised for a minimum period of 2-3 months and interviews were conducted and NO suitable APPLICANT was FOUND. ONLY then the H1B can fill that position.
As somebody mentioned here its the L-1 (inter company transfers) that are paid sub -wages(wages based on home country) and they are cheap labor here (but these are really temp positiosn 6-8 mos). Sub-wages only because American pay rates (including insurance, etc) are higher that most countries around the world. And a little common sense and awareness (outside of your american life) will tell you that is one of the primary reasons for outsourcing (which is another topic). Americans will rather be unemployed and abuse 'outsiders' of stealing jobs, than take pay cuts to match global compensation rates and keep all work at home.
Which brings me to the other point. One-million 'highly' skilled americans? Maybe that number is correct, actually it probably is. But if Mr Stix was a little 'un-American' for a second and actually had a bit of knowledge outside of his bubble, he would know that there are atleast 3 million tech (science, IT, etc) jobs in the US that need people and have nobody to do it. WORD OF ADVICE: At a minimum, if you can't manage to go through Newsweek, or TIME, or any such publication regularly or even once, I would suggest turning on the idiot box ( which I'm sure is already turned on always)to Fareed Zarkaria GPS every Sunday. May lead to some 'englightenment'.
Till then.. To the American Spirit.
Pawan is a low caste Dravidian, who got affirmative action quota. They dont have the cultural background to live in the west. He probably saw too many porn movies in India and took that lifestyle as the accepted American lifestyle
In his life, Pawan has never dated an Indian woman
H1B use extra-legal methods to under-pay, by deliberately skating to the edge of the written law
80% of Indian graduates are incompetent and many got in by affirmative action.
My Dear Nicholos babi,
Let me clearly state that the so-called tech jobs are really mediocre and it only needs the will to adapt to 5-9 kind of Office environment. The guy who says that he did MS. in computer science from Illinois University and then went into SAP FICO is a liar. You dont need a masters in Computer Science to go into SAPFICO. An Indian Bachelors in Commerce(3 year) or an Associate Degree(2 year) from America is more than enough to the typical SAP FICO job. It is just quesdtion of attitute(on the part of aspitant employee) and the willingness of corporates take risk in training the appropirate guys. In any case the American M.S inComputer Science covers the same courses that are covered in Bachelors in Engineering of Indian Universities. This Guy obviuosly wasted his time here and the only additional skill that he may have picked up is the English communication that is required for he job here.
There are whole gamut of issues that are not really relevant for people like who left an unsuccessful teaching career in SOME college(??) and who are involved in narrower subject of crime writing that is majorly based on secondary sources. One need to do some real fundamental research to atleast come near or dare to suggest employment policy measures.
Therefore, I(and may be many) are greatly amused to see your immediate suggestion to Cognizant to employ only Americans.
I still believe that Mehlan despite being reluctant stripper , hoped that Pawan was serious in committment. But Pawan was interested only in using her for immigration benefits and showered her with expensive benefits. And when she realised that since he is not interested ,her stripper mentality surfaced in demanding more from the gullible man( and innocent since he may never have had girl friend where as Mehlan may have seen atleast 20 boy friends in her life).This may enraged the guy who was purportedly leaving in July. Find out about these issues and enlighten us as the case progresses.
Dont worry about the immigration/employment policies that have bigger framework operation, lest you be considered puerile
Vishnuuu
@ Anonymous, sure there is some variance in pay and companies will always be as close as they can be to the legal minimum pay requirements, but that's the nature of 'business'. But the point I was trying to make is most if not all American Firms hire H1-Bs not to save pennies but because they aren't enough qualified people in this country, and it is only getting worse. In a way it makes sense with basic logic considering the ratio of old/young in the US is so skewed. Low youth numbers coupled with ridiculous tuition costs result is very low percentages of people actually getting a college degree and that too in the 'Science/tech' fields.
This topic is ofcourse separate from the murder incident. I don't think there is any arguing that the guy was responsible and I guess paid for his actions. And no matter what the 'arrangement' was and the girl was taking advantage or leading him on in exchange for gifts, nothing justifies Killing another being. Somebody here called her a whore and somebody called him a 'low-caste Dravidian'. This sadly just reflects the sick parochial mindset that still exists with Indian men wrt women and the ingrained caste system in the indian pysche ( just like color bias in the american pysche). Ofcourse considering the vast differences between the societies of the two countries, somebody new to the US ( more so from a non-metro in India; nothing to do with 'caste') will experience some sort of a culture shock, feel 'sexually liberated' and wouldn't know how to act, though murder really is beyond confused behaviour.
But what really inspired all this rambling is the tone 'Mr Stix uses in the blog (freedom of speech, yes, but still..). Singling out 'H1-B' and 'Sweatshop' really leaves a bitter taste. Sure it's a terrible crime, but the article wording makes it sound that it's worse because it was a foreigner doing it. There are thousands of terrible crimes across the country, many in the news every, from young kids to older women being abducted, raped, murdered ( Nancy Grace, anyone?)..But those are ok, cause Americans are committing them? Cause I didn't see headlines saying 'White American' abducted a 8-year old and killed her..
America is an open and great country to be. I can't see any difference between an American and anybody outside America. This is the land of immigrants and the place to be to realise your dreams. Everybody must pray for America's growth and prosperity. The murder incident has to be limited to only these two people. It actually does not matter who they are. We can only be sorry for what has happened and allow law to take its course. - I am an Indian citizen with experience working on long term in the US.
Mr Ignorance is bliss,
Actually, Nicholos is not ignorant. There are many faults/defeciencies for Americans not occupying many of these jobs. He is just taking a a stand in the hope that in these days of recession etc, blaming immigrants would help enticing more clicks on his website. His constant uttering the adjectives"Sweatshops,second rated H1-B worker etc etc" may also be one such effort.
But unfortunately for him, the clicks are not pouring.
However, you dont need to explain the complex bbusiness model that cognizant is part of to a Nicholos who claim that he foster parented Black kids(If he did that service with noble intentions, he dont need to mention the race) some time back.
I find it amusing to see many Americans(actually all of them) only want to be Managers. But who will do the nuts and bolts jobs of programing?? This is the 'Niche" Indian are fast filling and it looks certain that any amount of efforts will not stop the trend.
There will come a time, when most of the IT related jobs wil be outsourced permanently to India as they are basically backend functions and can be done through vedeo conferencing .There will not be need for onsite posting of people like Pawan and thus saving comments from people like Nicholos
I have experience working for MNCs in India. I have worked in the US and Europe as well. Let me be honest by saying office politics is at its highest in MNCs in India. Look at the way they recruit people at management levels. Let us say you have some real good experience from US and you go back to India to fill up a management position in a so called reputed MNC. Your 'would be' boss anyway has to invite you for an interview since you have some good experience to show off. But, let me tell you, that interview is total bul**it. Sorry about that. Your 'would be' boss has already made up his mind to not hire you. Why ? Because he sees you as a threat to his stay in the company. He is afraid of becoming redundant sooner. Later you get a regret letter which you will never understand. Any company that does not have the guts to hire good people at management levels is obviously not serious about growth. This problem seems to be severe in cost centers where jobs generally come in without serious efforts from management staff. Can someone take up this issue with MNC control centers in US and Europe ? This is ridiculous. When you have good experience, it must be easy for you to find a job in India. It is getting the other way round unfortunately. Kindly raise this issue so that we see merit as the key differentiator in selections in India for people who aspire to be managers and above. I was even told by one of the interviewers in India "you should have settled down in US. why did you come to India". This according to me is irritating. An Indian by birth, and someone asking me to settle down in the US. I WANT FOREIGNERS TO KNOW THAT THERE IS MANIPULATION AND POLITICS AT THE RECRUITMENT STAGE IN MNCs IN INDIA. In my opinion, foreigners must take full notice of this and conduct the selections themselves in the interest of promoting merit and justice. They should not leave it to the Indian politicians. please...
I am an Indian and have experience working in India and the US ( under Indian and American managers ). In my opinion, most Indians like to work with foreign managers ( that is non-Indians ). This is because of the formal nature and respect ( for each other ) that generally prevails. It has also got something to do with the value system that an American manager would have compared to the Indian manager. The Indian manager might feel jealous if he sees you travelling to various countries on job assignments, earning good salary, living peacefully with your family, having a beautiful wife etc. That is not what you will face if you work with an American manager. The American manager is always encouraging, likes to see you enjoying life etc. I am only trying to be honest about what is going on.
Indian companies need a better management fabric and high level of specialisation to handle some of the real high tech jobs people do in America.
Companies in India are only operating at a service level. Unless India gets a great pool of innovative specialists who can independently develop products and critical software, India cannot standout in the global market.
It is not that easy to write off the great expertise that exists in the US ( be it from the Indians here or the non-Indians ).
@ Anonymous. I haven't researched Mr Stix, so I don't really know his lifestory (nor do I really care), just stumbled upon the blog and noticed some of the topic headlines.It may well be an effort to get more clicks, but to me it really seems genuine and thus indicates the terrible ignorant and pathetic mindset of a 'white man'. And I say this not only because of words used in topics like "Third World Superiority Complex.." aimed at well the 'third world' countries, but I noticed other disturbing racist overtones to articles reporting crimes by 'black' americans. This entire blog is such.
To each their own, but I will say this, don't degrade and ridicule cultures, people, humanity because you can't comprehend or because they are different from you. You were born where you were, and you had NOTHING to do with it. So there is absolute no reason to 'act superior' to any other human because it was RANDOM and you could have easily being born in a slum in some 'third world' country that you keep referring to, or worse, a physically challenged/mentally retarded in your own 'superior' world.
I am from India. Yes, I agree with the posting above which says we have to treat human beings alike regardless of where they are from and what their culture is. Personality is a blessing from God. True, it is human instinct to look at and admire people who have pleasant personalities. There are a number of young blondes who look stunning. Likewise, there are many Indian women too with stunning looks ( and intelligence as well ) that the west would admire and adore. Let us leave the world of beauty & personality to the Lord - Our creator ! God is no racist, no discriminator. Be sure God is LOVE UNLIMITED and will not stand discriminators. Discriminators definitely have a place reserved in hell.
Ignorance is bliss,
Yes it is pathetic mind set of white man and may be woman. There are many like Nicholos in America who are aplogetic and would blame everything on immigrant.
The biggest mistake India did was to liberalise in 1991 instead of 1981 like China. If only India advanced the liberilsation by 10 more years USA would not have had this credit bubble. From the tech jobsside India and manufacturing side China would have squeezed Americans and would have forced them to save much earlier than now to save world from all these troubles.
What???
What made you think she's a "whore" and how is murder justified? Why don't you men in India quit justifying the gang rapes and murders in your country? If you maintain a backward ideal, (i.e. blaming everything on the woman) you will stay a 3rd world cesspool.
Also, you need to learn the laws, the customs and manners. Otherwise, you don't belong here spreading more hate.
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