Virati Basavaraj, a strong four-time MLA who turned the KR Pura constituency in jap Bengaluru and its adjoining areas into an actual property fiefdom in alliance first with the Congress after which with the Bharatiya Janata Get together in Karnataka, was arrested by the state Prison Investigation Division (CID) on February 12 in a homicide case relationship again to July 2025.
The arrest of Basavaraj, a Bharatiya Janata Get together lawmaker and former minister who celebrated his sixty fourth birthday in January with a full-page advert purchased by his supporters in a neighborhood newspaper, comes after practically eight months of efforts by regulation enforcement to cost him with the homicide of actual property agent VG Shivaprakash, alias Vikula Siva, 44, over a property dispute.
Basavaraj, a municipal councilor-turned-MLA, has been repeatedly elected to the Karnataka Meeting since 2013, however when he was concerned within the 2025 homicide case, he’s stated to have been working a parallel authorities for land acquisition within the KR Pura constituency for the previous 10 years.
Basavaraj is alleged to have labored with shut males, together with members of the family, hand-picked metropolis councilors and ex-gangster-turned-real property brokers, to ascertain management over the burgeoning actual property sector in Bengaluru’s periphery and used that affect to position cops of his alternative beneath his belt.
“It has been discovered that the accused (Basavaraj) is concerned in actual property enterprise. Throughout investigation, it was discovered that the accused was aiding accused A-1 and A-20 in actual property enterprise,” the Karnataka CID had informed a particular courtroom on February 13 wherein Basavaraj had sought police custody.
“Moreover, he (Mr. Basavaraj) had supplied safety to supporters inside his jurisdiction to help his actual property enterprise, and his supporters included defendants 1, 2, 3, 15 and 20 with prison information,” the Particular Court docket for Elected Officers had famous in December 2025, rejecting his anticipated bail plea.
homicide case
The homicide of actual property agent Vikula Siva outdoors his residence on busy Meany Highway in jap Bengaluru on the night time of July 15, 2025, is alleged to have stemmed from an actual property dispute. Basavaraj was straight concerned in threatening actual property brokers — Jagadish Palariajaga, 45, and AG Ajith Kumar, 48, earlier than being carried out by a gang of assailants allegedly organized by his shut aides and former East Bangalore gang.
The homicide allegedly occurred after Vikula Shiva refused to bow to stress from Bharatiya Janata Get together MLAs to withdraw his possession declare to 12 guntas of land (one gunta is about 1,000 sq. toes) in Kitaganur village on the town’s jap edge. On this village, land costs have soared from billions of rupees to twenty billion rupees an acre because of the building of a brand new ring highway.
The slain actual property agent and Bharatiya Janata Get together MLA reportedly engaged in a number of skirmishes over properties in jap Bengaluru in late 2024 and early 2025 earlier than the Kisaganur dispute surfaced in February 2025.
The CID investigation revealed that the slain actual property agent had filed a number of complaints with the police in early 2025 alleging threats to his life from the MLA and his associates, however no critical motion was taken. In truth, Vikula Siva himself was briefly jailed by the police in March 2025 for breaching bail after the MLA allegedly put stress on cops in his constituency.
Through the preliminary interrogation by Bengaluru police after the homicide on July 15, 2025, Basavaraj denied any involvement with the primary accused Jagadish or the homicide sufferer. Nevertheless, photos have since surfaced displaying Basavaraj with Jagga at birthday events, non-public capabilities and even the Kumbh Mela pilgrimage in February 2025, the place the homicide conspiracy allegedly surfaced.
Political Rise of Basavaraj
Basavaraj, who belongs to the Different Backward Lessons (OBC) Kuruba neighborhood like Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, was initially related to the Congress firstly of his political profession. He turned a member of the KR Pura Municipal Council in 2008 and was elected as an MLA for the primary time within the meeting elections in 2013.
He was among the many 17 Congress MPs and Janata Dal (Secular) MLAs who handed over energy to the BJP in 2019, toppling the Congress-JD(S) coalition authorities in Karnataka. After profitable the 2019 KR Pura referendum, he turned the city growth minister within the BJP’s BS Yediyurappa-led authorities.
In 2023, Basavaraj gained the KR Pura seat for the fourth time on a BJP ticket, however the BJP misplaced to the Congress within the meeting polls. Basavaraj’s cousin Virati Suresh, an in depth aide of Siddaramaiah and a Congress MLA from Hebbal tribe, inherited the city growth portfolio within the Congress authorities from Basavaraj.
In accordance with his election affidavits for the 2013, 2018 and 2023 polls, his property practically tripled in 10 years from Rs 46 million to Rs 122 million, with actual property property near Rs 85 million.
The BJP MLA was arrested on his arrival from Ahmedabad on February 12 after the Supreme Court docket rejected his anticipated bail utility.
Earlier, on February 10, the Karnataka Excessive Court docket rejected his anticipated bail plea and revoked the interim safety from arrest granted by the courtroom’s trip bench.
The courtroom’s Feb. 10 order stated, “Interrogation of a strong accused, similar to a extremely influential petitioner, armed with an anticipatory bail order might not be very efficient. The choice on the strategy of investigation should be left to the investigating authorities and the courtroom can not adjudicate on the identical.”
On February 12, the Supreme Court docket “dismissed as withdrawn” Basavaraj’s anticipatory bail utility.
