The Karnataka High Court has quashed a criminal case registered against Bharat Forge Chairman Baba Kalyani under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. In a dispute linked to land acquisition for Bengaluru’s NICE Road project, the court treated the unexplained 11-year delay in filing the complaint as a key ground for relief. The complainants had approached a special court in 2018 regarding an alleged incident from March 2007 without offering any clear explanation for the long gap. The High Court observed that allowing criminal proceedings to continue under such circumstances would amount to an abuse of the judicial process. In its order delivered on November 4, Justice M. Nagaprasanna also granted relief to businessman Ashok Kheny and D. Ravishankar, quashing the private complaint and all related proceedings against all three individuals. The court noted that although the complaint mentioned events spanning from 2007 to 2018, the core allegations stemmed from the alleged 2007 incident, and the complainants failed to explain why they waited 11 years to initiate criminal action.
Allegations of Land Encroachment and Demolition
The legal proceedings originated from a private complaint filed by S. Rajendran, S. Meganathan, and S. Sampath. The complainants claimed that the Karnataka government had allotted two acres of land in Kodigehalli village to their father. They alleged that the land was illegally taken over for the NICE Road project using forged documents and that their educational institution building on the site was demolished in 2007. The complaint accused the individuals of criminal trespass, causing damage to property, and subjecting the complainants to caste-based humiliation, seeking action under the SC-ST Act and relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code. Following an investigation into the 2018 complaint, the police had initially submitted a closure report. However, in February 2025, the special court directed the police to conduct further investigation, prompting Baba Kalyani, Ashok Kheny, and D. Ravishankar to approach the High Court challenging the proceedings on grounds of unexplained delay and lack of essential elements constituting the alleged offences.
Court Weighs Unexplained Delay Against Prosecution
During the High Court hearings, counsel for the complainants opposed the petitions, arguing that criminal proceedings should not be terminated solely on the ground of delay in filing a complaint. They contended that because the case involved serious allegations of land fraud and caste-based harassment, the investigation and legal process ought to continue. Justice Nagaprasanna, however, held that the timeline between the alleged events and the initiation of criminal action was critical. The court observed that if the alleged incidents had indeed occurred in 2007, the complete absence of any satisfactory reason for not filing a criminal case for 11 years rendered the delay wholly unexplained. The judge ruled that deliberate and unexplained delay can serve as a valid ground to quash criminal proceedings where continuing a trial would abuse the process of law, adding that even if the allegations in the complaint were taken at face value, the prolonged and unreasoned delay prevented the offences from standing.
Corporate Links to the NICE Road Project
Baba Kalyani, whose full name is Babasaheb Neelkanth Kalyani, serves as Chairman and Managing Director of Bharat Forge and heads the Pune-based Kalyani Group. He has also been a shareholder and former director of Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises Limited (NICEL), the company executing Bengaluru’s NICE Road project. Kalyani holds a five percent direct stake in NICEL, while Kalyani Group firm BF Utilities holds a 75 percent stake, and Ashok Kheny has also been associated with the company. The dispute centered around land acquisition and alleged encroachment for this infrastructure corridor. Senior advocate Prabhuling K. Navadgi, instructed by advocate SB Mathapati, appeared for the petitioners, while advocates Prabhugouda B. Tumbigi and Syed Khaleel Pasha represented the complainants, and Government Pleader Waheeda MM appeared for the state. With the High Court’s ruling, all criminal proceedings arising from the complaint against Kalyani, Kheny, and Ravishankar stand terminated.
