Karnataka MLA Byrathi Basavaraj Faces Arrest in Real Estate Murder Case as SC Rejects Anticipatory Bail

Nearly eight months after being named an accused in a Bengaluru realtor murder case, Karnataka MLA Byrathi Basavaraj, 64, now faces arrest, with the Supreme Court on Thursday rejecting his anticipatory bail plea. This comes close on the heels of a similar rejection by the Karnataka High Court and a Criminal Investigation Department (CID) lookout notice.

A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi “dismissed as withdrawn” the anticipatory bail plea moved by Basavaraj on Wednesday, a day after the Karnataka High Court had rejected his plea. The BJP MLA from K R Pura constituency in Bengaluru withdrew the plea after the CID unit of the Karnataka Police filed a caveat seeking to be heard before considering the anticipatory bail plea.

The CID had issued a lookout notice for Basavaraj on February 10, soon after the Karnataka High Court rejected his plea. The MLA, who is accused of being an integral part of the plot to murder realtor V G Shivaprakash alias Bikla Shiva, has dodged arrest through interim protections granted by the Karnataka High Court. On February 10, however, the high court rejected his anticipatory bail plea and cancelled an interim protection granted by a vacation bench on December 26, 2025.

“The interrogation of powerful accused, such as the petitioner, who is highly influential armed with an order of anticipatory bail may not be as effective. The decision as to the manner of investigation must be left with the investigation Authority and the court cannot sit in judgment over the same,” the high court said in its February 10 order.

Justice Sunil Dutt Yadav of the Karnataka High Court had observed in his judgment this week that Basavaraj was granted interim bail “at a point of time where the court did not have the benefit of the stand of respondents (the state through the CID police)”. As interim anticipatory bail was granted on the very first day in the absence of representation by the special public prosecutor who was handling the matter and in the presence of learned high court government pleader, who had no instructions on the stated day, but appeared and put in a symbolic presence, the high court said.

The court referred to evidence cited by Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) B N Jagadeesh, on behalf of the CID, including analysis of mobile phone location, call detail records, and allegations of threats to witnesses like the mother of the victim, to reject his plea. The high court observed that “the grant of anticipatory bail is an extraordinary relief”.

Shiva was murdered on July 15 last year, and 19 of the 20 accused in the case have been arrested. During arguments, the CID had said that Basavaraj had lied to the Bengaluru police during interrogation in July 2025, soon after the murder, that he did not know key accused in the murder case. The investigations, including call details, mobile location data, and pictures on social media, had revealed a close association with the accused, including a joint trip to Prayagraj for the Kumbh Mela in February 2025.

The high court said it had perused the investigation records, including “the CDRs as well as photographs” and that “the CDRs contain information which the petitioner is required to explain”. “There is sufficient force in the assertion of the prosecution based on the investigation records, that the petitioner has much to explain,” the high court observed. “Prima facie, such material would indicate that the petitioner cannot merely wash his hands off as if he is a stranger and has no relationship to the incident or the deceased,” the high court said.

The prosecution’s case is further strengthened by the invocation of the stringent Karnataka Control of Organised Crime Act (KCOCA), 2002, in the Bikla Shiva murder case on August 12, 2025. However, the Karnataka High Court quashed the invoking on December 16, 2025, saying no accused in the case was also involved in other recent crimes with a punishment of a jail term of three years. The CID has challenged this order in the Supreme Court, arguing that the Karnataka High Court had erred in its interpretation of the KCOCA. The Supreme Court has not stayed the judgment but has indicated that the order will not be a precedent that can be cited in other organised crime cases.

During the recent arguments on Basavaraj’s anticipatory bail plea in the high court, the CID produced an analysis of CDR for the MLA to prove his association with members of the gang accused of executing the Bikla Shiva murder. The CDR analysis was cited to show his association with key members of the gang, including accused number one Jagadish alias Jaga, a former Bengaluru rowdy sheeter; accused number 2, Kiran K; and accused number 20, Ajith Kumar, who are among the 19 arrested accused in the murder case. The CDR and geo-mapping evidence was produced in the high court “to demonstrate that the petitioner has tried to mislead the investigation” and that he “tried to distance himself from the accused but the records reveal something else”, the SPP told the high court.

The SPP also claimed that Shiva’s mother, who had named Basavaraj as an accused at the outset of the probe, was threatened into retracting her statement, but had testified in court about her son receiving threats from the MLA and associates over interference in property deals. The SPP also argued that the local police were hand-in-glove with Basavaraj, and this had led to the failure to register an FIR following two complaints filed by Shiva in February and March 2025, of threats to his life and even an attempt to murder.

Basavaraj is likely to surrender following the SC rejection of the anticipatory bail plea, police sources said.