Karnataka High Court orders magisterial probe into 2025 Hubballi encounter

Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court has ordered a judicial magisterial inquiry into the encounter of the accused in the rape and murder case of a minor girl in Hubballi in 2025.

A division bench, comprising Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice C M Poonacha, said that the judicial magistrate shall bear in mind the guidelines issued by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) for conducting an inquiry into the cases of death in custody or during police action.  

The bench passed this order in a PIL filed by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Karnataka, seeking directions for the preservation of evidence and an independent investigation into the custodial death of the accused, a migrant worker from Bihar.

The incident had come to light on April 13, 2025, when the police received information about a body of a child, which was abandoned near a shed in the Vijayanagar area, in the jurisdiction of Ashok Nagar police station in Hubli-Dharwad city limits.

Based on the CCTV camera footage, the police identified the accused and arrested him. The petitioners stated that, as per media reports, the accused was interrogated for three hours and that he confessed to the crime.

The police had taken the accused to an abandoned house on the outskirts, where he resided. It is claimed that the accused tried to escape by pelting stones at the police and tried to strangulate a woman police officer. After firing two warning shots, three shots were fired at the accused, and he succumbed to the bullet injuries. The petitioners contended that the FIR registered is not in accordance with the directions issued by the Apex Court in the case of People’s Union for Civil Liberties and another vs State of Maharashtra and Others. It was submitted that the state must register an FIR for conducting the investigation into the encounter.

In the present case, the FIR is registered against the accused, and no police official has been named. The government submitted that there is no requirement to specifically name the police officials and that if any further offences are to be added, the same can be done at an appropriate stage.

The bench said that the guidelines issued by the Apex Court will also be applicable to grievous injury cases in police encounters, as far as possible.

“In view of the above, there is no cavil that an enquiry be conducted by a judicial magistrate. We accordingly direct that an enquiry be conducted by the judicial magistrate,” the bench said and directed that the inquiry report shall be placed before it on the next date of hearing. The PIL’s hearing has been posted to June 8.