Karnataka HC quashes sexual assault case against Malayalam filmmaker Ranjith

Bengaluru, July 4 The Karnataka High Court on Friday quashed a sexual assault case filed by an aspiring young actor against Malayalam filmmaker Ranjith Balakrishnan.

A bench, headed by Justice S. R. Krishna Kumar, passed the order after the senior counsel representing the filmmaker pointed out glaring factual inaccuracies in the case.

Senior counsel Prabhuling Navadgi submitted to the court that the case was false. He argued that the alleged incident was said to have occurred at the Taj Hotel near Bengaluru International Airport, which opened in 2016. However, the complaint claimed the sexual assault took place in 2012, four years before the hotel even existed.

According to the complainant, the filmmaker allegedly invited him to the fourth floor of the Taj Hotel and forced him to engage in unnatural sex. It was also alleged that nude photographs of the complainant were taken and sent to an actress in Kerala.

The police had booked Ranjith under Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 66(E) of the Information Technology Act, 2000. He later approached the Karnataka High Court seeking the quashing of the FIR filed against him.

Earlier, a bench headed by Justice M. Nagaprasanna had stayed the criminal proceedings against the filmmaker, citing significant discrepancies in the complaint.

The court also considered the inordinate delay in filing the complaint. Justice Nagaprasanna had noted that the complaint was registered in 2024, whereas the alleged incident occurred in 2012 — a gap of 12 years - with no explanation offered for the delay.

Taking into account all these factors, the court opined that the case was a classic example of a false complaint.

The filmmaker maintained that the allegations against him were baseless and concocted with malicious intent.

Ranjith is among the top Malayalam film industry figures against whom allegations of sexual misconduct came up in the wake of the release of the explosive Justice K. Hema Committee report on the condition of women in the state film industry.

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