BENGALURU: In a relief to renowned Malayalam film director Ranjith Balakrishnan, the Karnataka High Court stayed criminal proceedings against him in a case of unnatural sexual assault. Justice M Nagaprasanna passed the interim stay order on December 9, after hearing the petition filed by Ranjith, questioning the legality of the crime registered by the victim from Kerala.
Initially, the complaint was registered before Kerala police. It was transferred to BIAL police station in Bengaluru, and registered under Section 377 IPC and Section 66E of the Information Technology Act, 2000, on October 26, 2024.
The complainant, an aspiring actor, said that in 2012, he was called by Ranjith to a star hotel near Bengaluru International Airport and forced into unnatural sex.
Referring to the complaint and arguments by the counsel of the petitioner, the judge observed that on the face of it, the complaint was false. “I don’t even say prima facie, as the said hotel near the airport started operations only in 2016, and the same is in the public domain.
It opened four years after the incident. Therefore, the vivid narration at the hotel is absolutely false. The complaint was registered in 2024 and the alleged incident is said to have happened in 2012,” he said.
It has taken 12 years for the complainant to register the complaint. The delay of 12 years is also left unexplained. Therefore, it becomes a classic case of falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus.
There shall be an interim order of stay of investigation and all further proceedings in crime, the judge observed. Issuing notice to the state police and emergent notice to the complainant, the court adjourned further hearing to January 17, 2025.