BJP MLA Byrathi Basavaraj booked in murder of rowdy in Bengaluru over land dispute

Former Urban Development Minister Byrathi Basavaraj is among five persons booked for the murder of a rowdy sheeter and realtor in Bengaluru, on July 16. The FIR was registered based on a complaint by Vijayalakshmi, the mother of the deceased who witnessed the murder on July 15.  

She said that her 44-year-old son Shivaprakash had been facing life threats from the associates of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA over a property dispute since February 2025. Shivaprakash had complained about the same to the police. She alleged that her son was murdered by unidentified assailants who were instigated by the MLA representing K. R. Puram. The MLA has been listed as accused number five in the FIR. 

Shivaprakash, 44, a Bengaluru-based realtor and rowdy sheeter, who was hacked to death by five persons on July 15, 2025.
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According to Ms. Vijayalakshmi, on July 15 around 8.10 p.m., Shivaprakash, his driver Imran Khan and a friend Lokesh were engaged in a conversation on the road in front of their house at Bharathinagar. When she looked out from the balcony on the first floor, she saw a group of unidentified assailants attack Shivaprakash. When Imran Khan tried to rescue her son, he was also attacked with lethal weapons. She saw Lokesh filming the attack on his mobile phone. She screamed for help. Seeing people rush to the spot, the assailants fled. By then, her son Shivaprakash was dead.

She said that Shivaparakash had been engaged in real estate business, as part of Extreme Point (Promoters and Developers) Private Limited, for the past one year. She said her son had got a General Power of Attorney (GPA) for a plot of land at Kothanur in 2023. He had built a shed and arranged for two women to live there as security guards.

In February 2025, two men — Jagadish alias Jagga and Kiran — had trespassed into the plot of land. They threw out the two women living there. Later, Ms. Vijayalakshmi claimed, Jagadish called Shivaparakash threatening to ‘not let him be alive’ if he doesn’t transfer the GPA to his name, as it was “his area”.

“My son had been complaining that he faced threats to his life from Jagadish, Kiran, Anil, Vimal and K.R. Puram MLA Byrathi Basavaraj. He had submitted several petitions in this regard to the police,” she stated in her complaint.

She suspects that her son was murdered by these four persons at the instigation of Mr. Basavaraj.