Nandi firm case: Gowda fined ₹2cr in defamation case

Bengaluru A local court in Bengaluru has directed former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda to pay ₹2 crore as damages for making defamatory statements against Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise Limited (NICE) in an interview to a Kannada TV channel in 2011

Bengaluru A local court in Bengaluru has directed former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda to pay ₹2 crore as damages for making defamatory statements against Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise Limited (NICE) in an interview to a Kannada TV channel in 2011.

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“The defendant is directed to pay damages of Rs.2,00,00,000/- to the plaintiff Company for the loss of reputation of the plaintiff Company on account of the defamatory comments made by the defendant in the interview telecasted in the ‘Suvarna 24/7’ Kannada news channel dated 28.6.2011...,” the VIII additional Civil and sessions Judge Mallanagouda, said in his order on June 17.

The court ordered Gowda, who also accused Ashok Kheny, the promoter and managing director of the company of land grabbing and corruption, to be restrained permanently from making any defamatory statements against the firm on any media platform henceforth.

Gowda, in the interview, said Kheny promoted the firm’s Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT) project and added it was actually a “loot project”. He referred to Kheny as “land mafia”, according to the order copy.

The court said Gowda did not have anything on record to prove the allegations.

The MoU for the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor project was signed in 1995 when Gowda was chief minister of Karnataka. The two parties had signed a contract to build a road between Bengaluru and Mysuru, around 111 kms, that was meant to be of international standards and reduce travel time by over half between two of Karnataka’s biggest cities.

Gowda could not be reached for comment.

A Janata Dal (Secular) party spokesperson also refused to comment on the development.

The project proposed to acquire over 20,000 acres and during the later half of the 1990’s, allegations of kickbacks, land grabbing were levelled by both sides, leading to over two decades of delays. There were also allegations that Gowda had tried to get Kheny to alter the route of the expressway to avoid the lands of a few influential people, which the latter objected to.

There are over 550 lawsuits filed in the case over the years.

In 2012, the Lokayukta police filed an FIR against three former Karnataka chief ministers Dave Gowda, SM Krishna and BS Yediyurappa and 27 others, alleging irregularities in the project, PTI reported in November 2012.