No relief for BJP MLA Munirathna Naidu in honey-trap case: Bengaluru court rejects closure report, orders fresh probe

The case was transferred to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) established to investigate allegations against Naidu and his associates. On April 28, 2025, the SIT submitted a ‘B report’ (closure report) stating that there was insufficient evidence to proceed. Subsequently, Narayanaswamy filed a protest petition with the special court.

Judge K N Shivakumar in the order said, “The final ‘B’ report submitted by the investigation officer DySP SIT, CID, Bengaluru is rejected and the protest petition filed by the de facto complainant is allowed. In the light of observations made herein above, this court deems it just and proper to refer this matter for further investigation. Accordingly, this matter is referred to the head of SIT, CID, Bengaluru for investigation of the criminal cases against accused 1 (Munirathna), for further investigation.”

“It is contended that though the complainant has narrated the other earlier incidents in the complaint apart from the alleged incident of honey traр, this complaint is against the alleged incident of honey trap only. But, the investigating officer has failed to understand that, those incidents were mentioned only to show that accused No.1 had nurtured a long-standing grudge with political vengeance against the def facto complainant and his wife, which became his motive to plan alleged honey trap incident in order to destroy the political career of defacto – complainant (Narayanaswamy) and his wife,” the order said.

The court has posted the next hearing for March 30.