HC quashes criminal case against Sadananda Gowda’s son

The High Court of Karnataka on Friday quashed criminal proceedings against D.S. Karthik, son of Union Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda, for allegedly cheating a woman after promising to marry her.

Justice Anand Byrareddy passed the order while allowing a petition filed by Mr. Karthik, who had questioned the cognisance taken by a trial court in September 2015 for the offence punishable under Section 417 (cheating) of IPC based on a charge sheet filed by the city police following a complaint by the woman.

The court said that the circumstances do not indicate any dishonest or fraudulent intention to deceive the complainant, and that the case put forward by the complainant was “ambiguous”. Pointing out that the complainant was not sure whether she could claim to be the wife of the petitioner, the court observed that “mere allegation of cheating without

prima facie material of sexual exploitation would at best entitle the complainant to damages in tort, if she could establish her case, but it would not enable her to prosecute the petitioner in criminal law”.

The court also noticed that Mr. Karthik was absolved of the allegation of having had sex on the false inducement of marriage as the allegation under Sections 366 (kidnapping, abducting or inducing woman to compel her marriage) and 376 (rape) made in the FIR was dropped in the charge sheet. “The only allegation is of a breach of promise to marry. It is now on record that the complainant had not been able to provide any incriminating material to demonstrate that she had been abducted and that there was a sexual relationship forced on her by the petitioner’s dishonest inducement of a formal marriage,” the court observed.

However, the court made it clear that the complainant could seek revival of Section 417 against the petitioner if she succeeded in her plea, which is pending for adjudication before the High Court, against dropping of other charges.