Byrathi Basavaraj, a BJP MLA accused in the July 15 murder of a real estate operator in Bengaluru, has moved the Karnataka High Court against the invocation of the Karnataka Control of Organized Crime Act (KCOCA) in the case, even as the police have sought the removal of protection from arrest granted to him.
Basavaraj, MLA for the K R Pura constituency in East Bengaluru, moved the court on October 14 with a plea to quash an order dated August 12, 2025, of the state government granting permission to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the police to invoke the provisions of KCOCA in connection with the murder of V G Shivaprakash, alias Bikla Shiva, 44.
The court issued notices to the state on October 16 and is set to hear the matter this week.
Bikla Shiva was killed outside his house on a public street near the Halasuru lake on the evening of July 15 by a gang of armed assailants. The Bengaluru police named Basavaraj, 63, and a local gangster, Jagadish P alias Jaga, 45, with whom the MLA is closely associated, among the accused in the case.
The murder is alleged to have occurred over a dispute concerning a property in East Bengaluru over which two rival gangs had staked a claim of ownership.
The Karnataka High Court granted protection from arrest to the MLA on August 13 but asked him to cooperate with the investigation. The CID, which has taken over the investigation, filed an application last month for the removal of the protection against arrest accorded to the MLA, citing alleged non-cooperation in the investigation.
The BJP MLA has previously argued in the court that withdrawal of protection from arrest would lead to his arrest in the case and that he would not be eligible for anticipatory bail under the provisions of KCOCA.
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A senior counsel appearing for Basvaraj argued last week during a hearing of the CID application for withdrawal of the protection from arrest order that the police had invoked the stringent KCOCA in the murder case, which would mean that the MLA would not have the option of seeking anticipatory bail against arrest.
“If, for any reason, this protection order is disturbed, then I will be left in a position of not being able to approach seeking anticipatory bail because of the events that have transpired (invoking of KCOCA),” the senior counsel argued.
The state prosecutor argued that custodial interrogation of Byrathi Basavaraj was needed, given the fact that the main accused in the case, Jagadish alias Jaga, had fled the country soon after the murder and was deported to India from Bangkok via Colombo on the basis of an Interpol Blue Corner notice, while an associate had gone missing with his electronic devices.
Basavaraj has claimed to have a limited association with the key accused in the murder case, but the police investigation has reportedly found a close association.
Special court view on invocation of KCOCA
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On September 24, a special court for cases involving elected representatives rejected the plea of some of the accused in the murder case against the invocation of the provisions of KCOCA on the grounds that they were not accused of multiple organised crimes.
The court has pointed out that the involvement of one of the accused in organised crimes where chargesheets are filed and courts have taken cognisance is sufficient to bring all other accused in a case under the purview of KCOCA.
“It is the settled principle of law that when a person joins an organised crime syndicate and they go on recruiting other persons into their syndicate for commission of organised crime, the same would suffice to invoke the provision of KCOCA, irrespective of the fact that it was the first criminal case being registered against a particular accused,” the special court said.
The police have stated in the special court that the Bikla Shiva murder had its origins in a property dispute dating back to February 2025, when a claimant to a property contacted accused No.2 Kiran K, stating that Bikla Shiva had illegally built a compound wall for four 30 x 40 sites belonging to the claimant.
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The claimant alleged that Bikla Shiva was verbally abusing Jagadish alias Jaga, a local gangster closely associated with Basavaraja. It is alleged that the Jaga gang plotted Bikla Shiva’s murder after a series of confrontations between them for dominance in the region.