Karnataka High Court quashes cheating case against BJP MLC Shashil G Namoshi

Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court has quashed the cheating case registered against BJP MLC Shashil G Namoshi, who is also the president of Hyderabad - Karnataka Education Society. Namoshi and others had challenged two crimes registered against them.

In the first complaint filed in August 2024, one Pradeep Dabshetty, an advocate and a member of HKE Society, had alleged that as members of the governing council of the society between 2009 and 2018, Namoshi and others did not remit the stipend amount of the postgraduate students and that they did not refund the fee under the blocked left over seat.

In October 2024, another complaint was filed alleging that Namoshi and others had sold those seats at higher amounts to other students, secured blank cheques from the students and drawn the amount to the tune of Rs 65,17,36,800 and used it for personal purposes.

It was argued on behalf of the petitioners that on March 31, 2018 itself they had registered a cheating complaint against the former governing council members of the education institution under the society. It was further submitted that the accused in that case filed the complaint by an advocate to wreak vengeance.

Justice M Nagaprasanna noted that without there being an aggrieved person, cheating cannot be complained by all and sundry, that too after 15 years of the incident or even 6 years of the last date of the alleged incident. The court also noted that not one student has registered any complaint throughout the 15 years that he has not received the stipend.

“Yet another fact that is borne out of the records is that the petitioners have registered a certain crime against the Governing Council Members of the Society on March 31, 2024 on similar allegations. Enquiry Committee is constituted to enquire into the crime registered by Namoshi and others. Therefore, the submission that it could be an act of wreaking vengeance cannot be brushed aside. In the teeth of all the aforesaid facts, the crime cannot be permitted to be continued,” the court said.