CCTV footage helps Bengaluru police join dots on real estate mafia gang's movement on day of realtor's murder

Indian Express

29-07-2025

CCTV footage from multiple locations across east Bengaluru has provided the police with crucial evidence on the movement and activities of a real estate mafia gang that murdered a rival over a dispute on July 15.
V G Shivaprakash alias Bikla Shiva, 44, who had a reputation for staking claims on disputed properties, was brutally hacked to death in public view with choppers and knives on the busy Meanee Avenue, near the Ulsoor Lake, in east Bengaluru by a gang of eight to nine men.
Ahead of handing over the case to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on July 24, the police investigation into Shiva's murder has allegedly found CCTV footage of the movements of the gang members on the day of the murder and various meetings held by the gang to plot the crime.
Sixteen people have been arrested, even as key accused Jagadish alias Jaga, 42, a 'former' gangster who is a known associate of BJP MLA Byrathi Basavaraj, is absconding. Jaga is reported to have fled to Dubai via Chennai, and the police have reported picking up details of the car he was using at a check post on the border of Bengaluru on the route to Chennai.
Basavaraj, the MLA from the K R Pura region in east Bengaluru, has also been named as an accused and has been quizzed on two occasions by the Bengaluru police.
Shiva's murder is alleged to have occurred over a dispute over a high-value property in east Bengaluru, which was claimed by Shiva and Jaga following a dispute among the original owners.
Among the 16 arrested accused are two alleged henchmen of Jaga—Kiran K, 34, and Vimal Raj, 31—and their close associates who subcontracted a gang from Kolar, located around 60 km from Bengaluru, to execute the murder.
The CCTV footage with the Bengaluru police of the day of the murder spans multiple locations. It includes visuals of the murder from a camera placed at a restaurant located opposite Shiva's house and Jaga's apartment block at Hennur, showing him leaving the building in an Audi A6 shortly after the murder in Ulsoor.
'We have the full details of the planning of the murder. We have visuals of where they were at 10 am, where they were at noon, where they were at 4 pm…we have the CCTV from a restaurant at the time of the murder,' a Bengaluru police officer said.
'We have details of the route they have taken to return from the murder scene. We have details of the persons who were in the car and visuals of them near the Kalkere lake in Ramamurthy Nagar, where they held a meeting on the steps to be taken after the murder,' the officer added.
'A CCTV camera at the location shows one group being told to wait in an autorickshaw near the lake while another group goes ahead to meet someone. This is all recorded,' the officer said.
Some of the visuals gathered by the police have been aired by local television channels in Bengaluru.
Apart from Jaga's alleged accomplices Kiran and Raj, the police have arrested Pradeep K, 27, Madan R, 27, Samuel V, 24, Arun Temu, 25, and Naveen K, 24, for allegedly planning and participating in the murder. Avinash Dinnahalli, Sudarshan, Murugesh, Narasimha and Kiran, from Tekal village in Malur in the neighbouring Kolar district, have been arrested for allegedly executing the murder. They were allegedly brought to the city on July 14 to execute the murder on July 15.
'The men from Kolar were hired with an offer of ₹ 20 lakh each and were paid an initial amount of ₹ 1.5 lakh along with the promise of life settlement. The people who kept a watch on Shiva's movements since February were paid ₹ 30,000 each. A lot of investment has gone into the murder,' a police source said.