BJP MLA Byrathi Basavaraj. (File Photo)
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Karnataka Police has moved the Supreme Court against the December 19 decision of the Karnataka High Court to drop charges under the stringent Karnataka Control of Organized Crime Act (KCOCA), 2000, against BJP MLA Byrathi Basavaraj, who is an accused in the murder of real estate operator V G Shivaprakash alias Bikla Shiva in Bengaluru.
The HC order scrapping the invocation of KCOCA against Basavaraj also extended to 20 others arrested in connection with the July 15, 2025, murder of the real estate operator in Bengaluru.
“A holistic reading of Section 2(1)(d) and 2(1)(e) of KCOCA would indicate that as regards a member of the organised crime syndicate, there must be involvement of such member individually or jointly in cognizable offence punishable with imprisonment of three years or more with respect to at least more than one charge sheet having been filed in that regard before a competent Court,” the HC observed in its verdict in the BJP MLA’s case last month.
“This aspect having been overlooked by the approval authority would reflect non-application of mind,” it added.
The CID has challenged the HC order on the grounds that it is flawed. The department has argued that KCOCA charges were invoked by the state police after one of the key accused, Madan R, was found to have been involved in two recent cases of attempt to murder, wherein chargesheets have been filed in the past 10 years.
Under KCOCA, investigating agencies have a 180-day time limit for filing chargesheets against arrested persons, and there is no provision for anticipatory bail for the accused. It also allows 30 days of police custody for accused persons during the investigation period instead of the regular 15 days of custody.
Bikla Shiva, 44, was killed outside his house on a public street near the Halasuru Lake by a gang of armed assailants. The murder is alleged to be linked to a property dispute in east Bengaluru dating back to February 2025.
The BJP MLA is alleged to be linked to a gang that operates in the real estate sector in his constituency. Members of the gang are accused in the murder case.
Earlier in September 2025, a special court for cases involving elected representatives had rejected a plea of six persons arrested in the case who had claimed that KCOCA provisions were wrongly invoked against them since they were not accused of multiple organised crimes.
The court pointed out that the involvement of any one of the accused in multiple serious crimes, where charge sheets are filed and taken cognisance by the courts, is sufficient to bring all other accused in the case under the purview of KCOCA.
Curated by Aisha Patel
