The Karnataka High Court has quashed a criminal case against five people, including film producer M. Inder Kumar, over allegations of fraud, criminal breach of trust, forged documents and criminal conspiracy linked to Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA) site allotments.
Justice M. Nagaprasanna, sitting as a single-judge bench, allowed criminal petitions filed by M. Inder Kumar, C. Vinod Raj alias Vinod, Naveen Kumar of Doddballapur, Mohan Kumar and H.R. Lakshman Kumar. The petitioners had sought the cancellation of the case registered against them in connection with alleged irregularities involving BDA allotment documents.
During the hearing, counsel for the petitioners argued that the complaint did not contain the essential elements required to establish the alleged offences. They submitted that the complaint did not identify any specific document that had been forged and did not record witness statements relating to any particular property.
The petitioners also argued that the allotment letters seized during the investigation were genuine documents and had not been sent to any allottee. No sale deed had been registered, they told the court, and the land concerned continued to remain under BDA ownership.
The High Court accepted this line of argument while examining whether the allegations disclosed the offences of cheating and forgery. The court observed that such offences require the existence of victims who have suffered deception or harm. Since no rights had been transferred to the accused, the court held that the allegation that victims had been cheated could not be sustained on the facts presented.
The court further held that the alleged acts attributed to the petitioners had not reached the stage of an attempt to commit the offences of cheating and creating forged documents. On that basis, it quashed the chargesheet filed against them.
The case originated after an unidentified person submitted a pen drive to the BDA commissioner, alleging that some BDA officials were bringing official site-allotment letters and seals to Inder Kumar’s private office on Cunningham Road and working in collusion with him. The complaint also alleged that sites in the HBR and HRBR Layouts were being allotted for lakhs of rupees through forged BDA allotment letters.
Following the complaint, documents related to the BDA were found at Inder Kumar’s office in December 2020. The BDA vigilance wing and the special task force subsequently registered a complaint in connection with the matter.
The ruling brings the criminal proceedings against the five petitioners to an end on the basis that the allegations and material placed before the court did not establish the necessary elements of the charged offences. The court’s decision specifically records that the land remained with the BDA and that no sale deed or transfer of rights had taken place.
