New Delhi: In a relief to badminton player Lakshya Sen, Supreme Court Tuesday directed that no coercive steps be taken against him in a case registered against him on allegation of fabricating his birth certificate to participate in age-restricted badminton tournaments.
A bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and K Vinod Chandran issued notice on a plea filed by Sen and stayed the proceedings against him. It posted the case to April 16 for further hearing. Sen approached SC after his plea to quash the investigation against him was rejected by Karnataka high court.
As per the complaint, it was alleged that the parents of Lakshya and his brother Chirag, in collusion with his coach, who is an employee of the Karnataka Badminton Association, managed to fabricate their birth certificates by reducing his age by about two and a half years and it was done to enable them to participate in badminton tournaments.
The complainant requested the trial court to summon the original records from Sports Authority of India. Upon verification, the trial court referred the matter to the police department to investigate under Section 156(3) CrPC. Thereafter, a first information report was registered under Sections 420, 468, 471 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code.
Karnataka high court had, on Feb 14, dismissed Sen’s petition and said, “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 that are placed before the court by the complainant which are the documents that are obtained under the Right to Information Act from the appropriate authority. Under such circumstances, I do not find any reason to entertain the petitions.”