Karnataka HC refuses anticipatory bail to MLA Byrathi Basavaraj in realtor murder case

The High Court of Karnataka on February 10 declined to grant anticipatory bail to BJP MLA B.A. Basavaraja in the case of murder of Shivaprakash alias Bikla Shiva, a realtor-cum-rowdy-sheeter, who was killed on July 15, 2025.

Justice S. Sunil Dutt Yadav passed the order while rejecting the petition filed by Mr. Basavaraj. With this order the interim anticipatory granted to him on December 26, 2025 got cancelled.

Initially Mr. Basavaraja, who has been arraigned as accused number-5 in the First Information Report (FIR), was booked on the charge of conspiracy and murder, and he had filed a petition before the high court challenging the FIR. The High Court in August 2025 had given him an interim protection asking the police “not to take coercive step against him”.

However, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which took over probe from the city police, invoked the provisions of the Karnataka Control of Organised Crimes Act (KCOCA), 2000 against all the accused persons, including him, during pendency of his petition against the FIR. This led him to file another petition before the high court challenging invocation of KCOCA.

The High Court, in its December 19, 2025 quashed invocation of KCOCA against him and other accused. Meanwhile, Mr. Basavaraj withdrew his petition challenging the FIR by seeking anticipatory bail from the high court, which however, asked him to knock the doors of the sessions court.

However, the special court of sessions for criminal cases against present and former MPs and MLAs on December 23 rejected his plea for anticipatory bail stating that investigation against him and another accused is not complete even though the CID had filed charge sheet against the remaining 18 accused persons.

Following this, the MLA had filed the present petition before the High Court, a vacation bench of which on December 26 had granted him interim anticipatory bail till the final adjudication of the petition while noticing that the he had appeared before the city police for questioning but CID had never called him for questioning even though there was no such bar from the court during the pendency of his petitions against the FIR and the invocation of KCOCA.

Published – February 10, 2026 01:46 pm IST