‘Tried to mislead investigation’: Call records tie MLA Byrathi Basavaraj to accused in realtor murder case, police tell HC

The SPP used the CDR analysis to break down the MLA’s argument during police questioning in July 2025 that he was not associated with key members of the gang accused of murdering realtor V G Shivaprakash alias Bikla Shiva—Jagadish alias Jaga, Kiran K, and Ajith Kumar, accused numbers 1, 2 and 20, in the case.

SPP Jagadeesh told the high court that the call detail records and geo-mapping evidence were produced “to demonstrate that the petitioner has tried to mislead the investigation”. Basavaraj had stated that he had no idea about the identity of the prime accused, Jagadish, or any association with him, and that pictures with the accused in the public domain were a part and parcel of the public life of a politician, the SPP said. “The petitioner is not entitled to relief,” he added.

A trip to Kumbh

The SPP also told the high court that the call data and tower location information revealed a close association between Basavaraj and the accused—both before and during the alleged plotting of the murder—with the MLA travelling to Prayagraj for the Kumbh Mela from February 10 to 12, 2025, on the same flight with a ticket with the same PNR number as the key accused.

The CDR analysis of the MLA’s mobile number, along with the geo-mapping of the mobile phones of Jagadish, Kiran and Kumar, reveals that they were all in the same location with the MLA at the same time or moving together on numerous occasions, the high court was informed.

The analysis of cell phone data showed that the accused were with Basavaraj for the Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj between February 10 and 12, and tower location data reveals that phone calls were made to associates in Bengaluru over the real estate dispute with Shiva for 13 guntas of land in Kithaganur village in Bengaluru.

The cell phones of all the key accused were switched off after Shiva’s murder on a public street in east Bengaluru on the evening of July 15, 2025, and some of the key accused, like Jagadish, left the city, the SPP informed the high court.

The SPP also claimed that Shiva’s mother, who had named Basavaraj as an accused, had threatened to retract her statement but had testified in court about her son receiving threats from the MLA and associates over interference in property deals.

‘Want to interrogate MLA in custody’

“The state has a duty to protect the interest of common people since the state itself had failed earlier,” SPP Jagadeesh argued. “This is a classic case (of) frustrating investigations and the judicial process,” he added.

Previously, the SPP had argued that the local police were hand in glove with Basavaraj, and this had led to the failure to register an FIR following two complaints filed by Shiva in February and March last year of threats to his life and even an attempt to murder.

SPP Jagadeesh told the high court that an attempt to murder complaint filed by Shiva was closed by the Rama Murthy Nagar police in 2025 after recording it as a non-cognisable report (NCR).

A suspect in the case, who abandoned a scooter near Shiva’s office, was not called for investigation and was eventually called only on July 31, 2025, after the murder, when the local police had already claimed to have closed the NCR.

“We are seeing that the police played a role (in protecting the MLA and his associates),” the SPP said while producing the station house diary of the Rama Murthy Nagar police station to show to the court that gangster Jagadish was not called by the police for questioning.

“A murder exists, an organised crime exists,” the SPP told the high court while referring to evidence gathered by the police of ongoing property feuds between Shiva and the MLA’s associates.

“We want interrogation (of the MLA) in custody because he is not an ordinary person,” the SPP further told the high court while seeking dismissal of Basavaraj’s anticipatory bail plea.