Byrathi Basavaraj, MLA for K.R. Puram, on Wednesday filed a petition before the High Court of Karnataka seeking anticipatory bail as a sessions court on Tuesday rejected his plea in a case linked to the murder of rowdy-sheeter-cum realtor V.G. Shivaprakash alias “Biklu” shiva.
The petition is posted for hearing on December 26 before a vacation bench of the High Court.
The Special Court of Sessions for criminal cases against present and former MPs and MLAs had refused to grant anticipatory bail while citing the High Court’s observation that “the custodial interrogation is a legal option available to the investigating agency and there is no reason to deny such exercise of power”.
The High Court had made such an observation in its judgment quashing the invocation of the Karnataka Control of Organised Crimes Act (KCOCA), 2000, against the MLA and other accused persons, while asking him to approach the sessions court for anticipatory bail.
Though it accepted the arguments made on behalf of the MLA that he did cooperate for investigation by the police and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which never bothered to call him for probe after taking over the case even though there was no stay for investigation by High Court, the sessions court pointed out that as “a serious allegation of committing murder has been levelled against him, the role played by him can only be looked into at the time of investigation”.
CID’s claim
The CID on December 22 filed a chargesheet against 18 of the total 20 accused persons and did not file a final report against Basavaraj (who is arraigned as accused number 5 in the First Information Report) and Ajith (accused number 20), stating that investigation against them could not be completed.
It has been claimed by the CID that Shiva was murdered by the associates of rowdy-sheeter Jagadish alias Jagga (accused number 1) over a dispute over a property, as there were frequent fights between Shiva and Jagga over the area of operation of real estate business as both of them operating in K.R. Puram and Ramamurthy Nagar areas.
Jagga and Ajith, who were in the real estate business, were getting support from Basavaraj, who is also involved in the real estate business. The CID had stated in the sessions court while claiming that Jagga had contacted Basavaraj on July 15 over the phone after Shiva was hacked to death. The CID had stated that Basavaraj, Jagga, and Ajith had travelled in the same aircraft to participate in Maha Kumbh mela at Prayagraj in February.
Published – December 24, 2025 09:31 pm IST
