Biklu Shiva murder: CID grills BJP MLA Byrathi Basavaraj

Bengaluru: The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Monday grilled BJP MLA Byrathi Basavaraj even as he maintained that he had no connection with the alleged murder of rowdy Biklu Shiva.

Basavaraj is in the custody of the CID till February 21. According to sources in the CID, the investigators were questioning the BJP MLA on whether it was he who ordered the hit on Shivakumar alias Biklu Shiva, 40, who was brutally murdered outside his home in Meanee Avenue Road in Bharathinagar in East Bengaluru on the night of July 15. “So far, the suspect has maintained that he had nothing to do with the murder and is being falsely accused,” a highly-placed source said.

The BJP MLA is accused of backing the assailants who confessed to killing Shiva, allegedly following a past rivalry and property disputes. The investigators are also checking if the MLA had any links with the alleged property dispute.

The complainant, the deceased's mother, alleged that Shivakumar was in the real estate business and had registered a General Power of Attorney (GPA) for a property in his name in 2023.

As per the FIR, in which Basavaraj was named accused number 5, Shivakumar had built a compound around the property, and some workers were living in a shed there, who were chased away in one instance by some of the suspects.

The complainant later took a U-turn and said that she hadn’t named the BJP MLA in her complaint. “The police themselves added the names. My son first gave a complaint naming the BJP MLA. Maybe they (police) added it from that,” Shivakumar’s mother claimed.

Further, the CID is also checking Basavaraj’s relationship with the prime suspect, Jagadish alias Jagga. Jagadish was at large following the murder and was detained at the airport in New Delhi in August last year, upon his arrival from Dubai. Investigators are also probing who funded Jagadish’s travel and helped him evade the authorities.