A Bengaluru special court Saturday told a close associate of BJP MLA Byrathi Basavaraj that it will wait for an investigation report from the police before taking up his plea for an interim bail in the July 15 murder of a city-based realtor.
The special court for elected representatives refused to grant interim bail to Jagadish P alias Jagga, 35, the prime accused in the murder of realtor V G Shivaprakash alias Bikla Shiva, 44, before hearing the police version in the murder case.
The special court’s order came on a day when the BJP K R Puram MLA appeared before the city police for questioning regarding his role in the murder of Bikla Shiva after the police named him as an accused in the case based on multiple complaints that the murdered Bikla Shiva had filed about threats to his life.
MLA Basavaraj appeared before the police for questioning after the Karnataka High Court Friday directed him to cooperate in the probe by responding to a summons issued by the police.
The Karnataka HC issued the directive after former minister Basavaraj, 61, approached the high court for a stay on the investigations into the murder of Bikla Shiva.
According to the First Information Report (FIR) registered in the case of the murder of Bikla Shiva, who was killed in front of his house in full public view on a busy street near the Ulsoor Lake in east Bengaluru, the murder is alleged to have been carried out by the Jagadish gang over a property dispute.
The Bengaluru police have arrested five people for the murder. The main accused, Jagadish, has been absconding. He, however, filed an anticipatory bail plea two days ago in the special court for elected persons.
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On Saturday, the advocate for the prime accused argued he was being implicated in the case “on the basis of some vague allegations”. The advocate argued that the police had detained the second accused in the case, Kiran K, on the day of the murder when he had visited the police station, but showed his arrest only on July 17.
“The learned Senior Counsel has argued that the very same apprehension persists in the mind of the petitioner herein, who has been arraigned as accused No. 1 in the instant case. The submission is taken on record and since the report of I.O. is required to be considered, the court is not inclined to grant interim order,” the special court ruled.
Basavaraj is a cousin of Karnataka Congress Minister Byrathi Suresh. BJP MLA Basavaraj was previously with the Congress as well but shifted allegiance in 2019, along with 16 other Congress and JD(S) MLAs, to help the BJP topple a JD(S)-Congress alliance government in Karnataka.
Basavaraj is also a realtor in east Bengaluru, and his fortunes have grown in the last decade when he has been the K R Puram MLA.
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The murdered realtor, Bikla Shiva, had complained previously in February and March to the Bengaluru police about receiving threats regarding a disputed one-acre property in the Kithaganur area of east Bengaluru from the associates of the MLA.
Bikla Shiva also had a criminal history and multiple cases of extortion and violence against him in police stations across east Bengaluru.
A resident of Meanee Avenue in Ulsoor, Bikla Shiva, was standing outside his residence on the evening of July 15 and speaking to his driver, Imran, and friend, Lokesh, when more than eight people arrived at the spot on bikes and attacked him. In her complaint to the police, Bikla Shiva’s mother, Vijayalakshmi, said she witnessed the murder from the balcony of her house.
BJP MLA Basavaraj has denied the allegations against him and has claimed that the allegations are “politically motivated”. “The property in question falls under the Mahadevapura assembly segment. What interest will I have there? I don’t even know Shivaprakash. If he had complained, alleging that I was behind the death threats, why was I not questioned even once by the police?” Basavaraj said.