New Delhi: The Karnataka High Court has given the green light to launch an investigation of alleged age-fraud allegations on badminton star Lakshya Sen, his family and coach U Vimal Kumar.
They are under the lens for alleged fabrication of birth certificates for participation of Lakshya and his brother in youth tournaments and subsequently claim illegal benefits from the Karnataka government.
Acting on a private complaint lodged by MG Nagaraj in 2022 before a trial court, Justice MG Uma dismissed three petitions of the accused Sen family, who had challenged the complainant’s legality lodged against them.
“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,” Justice Uma said, as per livelaw.in.
“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.”
The accused parties had earlier obtained an interim stay order on the police probe in 2022 on grounds of the allegations being baseless and motivated.
‘Alleged planned age fabrication’
Nagaraj appealed to the court to seek access to records of the Sports Authority of India (SAI) and the sports ministry to substantiate the claims after which the High Grounds police station in Bengaluru registered an FIR on accounts of cheating and forgery.
In his complaint Nagaraj claims that Lakshya (A3), his brother Chirag (A2), their parents Dhirendra (A1) and Nirmala (A5) and coach Vimal Kumar in collusion with a Karnataka Badminton Association employee (A4) tampered with birth details to reduce ages of the shuttlers by around two and half years in official documents.
“The materials that are placed on record discloses that accused No.1 taking advantage of his position as coach in Badminton Academy colluded with accused No.4, who is also the employee of the Karnataka Badminton Association, accused No.5 being the mother of accused Nos.2 and 3 have fabricated the birth certificates and manipulated the date of birth of accused Nos.2 and 3 to enable them to take part in badminton tournament and claimed the benefit from the Government,” Justice MG Uma said, as quoted by livelaw.in.
Lakshya Sen, his family and coach U Vimal Kumar are under the lens for alleged fabrication of birth certificates for participation in youth tournaments and subsequently claim illegal benefits from the Karnataka government. Badminton Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
