BENGALURU: The High Court of Karnataka on Monday refused to quash the criminal proceedings against badminton players Lakshya Sen and his brother Chirag Sen, whose birth certificates were allegedly changed by their parents to enable them to take part in badminton tournaments and claim benefits from the government.
Lakshya Sen is a recipient of Arjuna Award. Lakshya and Chirag’s father works as a coach at Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy and their mother is an employee of Karnataka Badminton Association.
Justice MG Uma dismissed the three petitions filed by the accused, questioning the legality of the complaint registered against them based on a private complaint by one Nagaraja MG in 2022 before a trial court.
“When prima facie materials are placed on record, which constitute the offences, I do not find any reason either to stall the investigation or to quash the initiation of criminal proceedings. There are sufficient materials before the court, which are documents obtained under the Right to Information Act (RTI). Under such circumstances, I do not find any reason to entertain the petitions,” Justice Uma said while dismissing the petitions filed by the accused.
Dhirendra Kumar Sen (A1), his wife Nirmala Dhirendra Sen (A5), their sons Chirag (A2) and Lakshya (A3), and their coach and employee of the association U Vimal Kumar (A5) had filed the petitions. Kumar Sen, the coach at the academy, in collusion with the co-accused changed the birth certificates of Chirag and Lakshya, showing their age less by about two-and-a-half years to enable them to take part in tournaments and thereby claim various benefits from the government.