High court grants default bail to four accused in  rowdy-sheeter Biklu Shiva murder case

Bengaluru: In a significant development in the murder case of Bengaluru rowdy-sheeter Shivaprakash alias Biklu Shiva, the Karnataka High Court has granted default bail to four accused after noting delays in filing the charge sheet.

The accused — P. Jagadish alias Jagga, K. Kiran, B. Vimal Raj and R. Madan — had filed a petition seeking bail on the ground that the investigating agency had not filed the charge sheet within the stipulated time under criminal law.

Justice Sunil Dutt Yadav, who heard the petition, allowed the plea and granted default bail to the four accused. The detailed copy of the order is yet to be made available.

Under the law, investigators are required to complete the probe and submit a charge sheet within 90 days in cases involving serious offences such as murder. In this case, the probe was being carried out by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Karnataka.

Initially, the CID had invoked provisions of the Karnataka Control of Organised Crimes Act to seek additional time for filing the charge sheet. However, the High Court later quashed the application of the special law on December 19, 2025.

With the KCOCA provisions set aside, the extended time granted for filing the charge sheet was also cancelled. The accused subsequently argued that the police had failed to submit the charge sheet within the mandatory 90-day period.

The accused had first approached the magistrate court seeking default bail on December 22, 2025. On the same day in the evening, CID officials filed the charge sheet. The magistrate court rejected the bail request, after which the accused moved the High Court.

After examining the matter, the High Court allowed the petition and granted default bail with certain conditions. Each of the accused must furnish a personal bond of ₹1 lakh and provide a surety for the same amount.

The court also directed the accused to cooperate with the trial process and strictly warned them against tampering with evidence or intimidating witnesses.

Meanwhile, the fifth accused in the case, BJP legislator and former minister Byrathi Basavaraj, had earlier been granted conditional bail by the special court for MPs and MLAs in Bengaluru.

The murder case dates back to July 2025 when Shivaprakash alias Biklu Shiva was allegedly killed outside a house near Halasuru Lake. Following the incident, a case was registered at the Bharathi Nagar Police Station based on a complaint filed by the victim’s mother Vijayalakshmi.

She had alleged that the murder was linked to a dispute over land. The CID later took over the investigation and arrested several accused in connection with the case.