Karnataka HC asks why no action taken against cops who protected murder suspects linked to BJP MLA Basavaraj

“Time and again, you are saying that the state police have prima facie not done their duty as per law. Then, needless to say, at some point you must initiate action against them,” Justice Sunil Dutt Yadav said. “It should be straight because if you are saying something now, you should prove your bona fides.”

SPP B N Jagadeesh informed the court that action against erring officials was in the pipeline. “This is in the pipeline. We have not touched that aspect because the investigation (of the murder) has to happen. There is also other material we have found. Not just departmental action, there is something else that we have found,” he said.

“The only thing is that if we do anything now that precipitates the situation, it is going to have an impact on the investigations. This is the reason why we have not precipitated it,” he said.

During arguments on Wednesday, the SPP suggested that an assistant commissioner of police (ACP) tasked with inquiring into a complaint of threats submitted on February 18, 2025, to the Bengaluru police commissioner had obfuscated the inquiry process.

While the ACP gave a report to the police commissioner on August 11, 2025, shortly after the murder of the victim, saying the suspect accused of making threats in February had not responded to police notices, the same officer had reported, in documents accessed through RTI by the MLA’s counsel, that the suspect had responded through his lawyer.

“Was a false report given to the police commissioner (in August 2025)? How did the documents of recording the statements come about?” the SPP said while indicating that the evidence of the recording of the suspect’s statements on the February 2025 threat complaint was not part of government documents. The suspect is now an accused in the murder case.

The SPP gave an undertaking to the court at the conclusion of arguments on Wednesday that the police would initiate action against erring officials in the Bikla Shiva murder case.

SPP says interim bail was ‘obtained’, MLA’s counsel objects

During the arguments on Tuesday, the counsel for the BJP MLA questioned the SPP’s use of the word “obtained” while referring to the interim bail granted to Byrathi Basavaraj by the high court’s vacation bench on December 26, 2025.

“What really hurts us the most is the language that has been used against this grant. It is just not comprehensible. Repeatedly, it was submitted that the interim anticipatory bail was “obtained”, Sandesh Chouta, the MLA’s counsel, said.

The senior counsel claimed that the CID had been critical of the police establishment in Bengaluru and the judiciary during its arguments.

The SPP responded, saying the CID police had consciously used the word “obtained” in its submissions. “I can demonstrate the facts. I am not being a persecutor. I have placed the materials that exist,” the SPP said.

The CID argued that a vacation bench could not have granted interim bail to the BJP MLA since there is no provision for interim bail under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and that the MLA had already exhausted his right to seek anticipatory bail in the high court after an interim protection granted to him in August 2025 on an initial plea was withdrawn by the court in December 2025.

The CID also argued that the BJP MLA had lied to the Bengaluru police during interrogation in July 2025, soon after the murder, that he did not know the key accused in the murder case at all. The investigations had revealed a close association, including frequent calls, movement together, and a joint trip to Prayagraj for the Kumbh Mela in February 2025, it was further argued.

The BJP MLA’s counsel argued that the CID should have challenged the interim bail plea in the Supreme Court if it was aggrieved with the vacation bench’s December order. He argued that the MLA was not named in any remand applications or the first chargesheet filed by the CID in the murder case and that he had cooperated with the investigation.

Nineteen people have been arrested so far over the July 15, 2025, murder of Bikla Shiva, who also had a criminal record of interfering in property disputes by making fake claims.