A violent murder in Bengaluru reveals the hidden operations of the city's real estate underworld

A violent murder in Bengaluru reveals the hidden operations of the city's real estate underworld. The murder of V G Shivaprakash alias Bikla Shiva, aged 44, happened on July 15. He was known for seizing control of contested properties. He was hacked to brutal death with knives like gang land murders in the city.

He was hacked to death outside his house in the Bharathi Nagar police limits on a busy street at around 8.00 at night. It was done by a gang that was watching his actions for several days. The naming of Byrathi Basavaraj who is a four time legislator of BJP from the KR Pura area in east Bengaluru, as a prime accused was a surprise.

It was declared within 2 hours of the murder. The police FIR named the MLA Byrathi’s close associate Jaga who was aged 42, as accused number one. Three gangsters were A2, A3, A4, and the MLA was named as A5. The investigations have revealed for the first time that there are inner workings of all the real estate mafias in the city.

Shiva has complained many times this year to the Bengaluru police of being harassed by a gang. It was led by Jag who was an associate of KR Pura MLA. It was over the 12 acres of real estate property on the survey no. 212 in Kithaganur.

Kithaganur is a growing area on the east side of the Bengaluru city. The cost of land for an acre is Rs 15 Crores to Rs 20 Crores now. After the building of a section of the Satellite Ring Road that touches NH 648, the prices increased.

The survey number 212 of Kithaganur was a uncertain property without clear titles for the original owners. Real estate players like Jagadish and Bikla Shiva fought to take control of the land and got the general power of attorney from the applicants of the land.

Bikla Shiva sued in a police complaint that his friend bought the real estate land in the year 2023 from the owner named Singa Reddy. He then shifted the GPA rights for that land to him. The rival gang of Jaga got a GPA from the family of the owners.

Shiva has added that Jaga came to the property on February 11, 2025. He attacked the boundary wall and a shed he had built. After that, he got phone calls to hand over GPA for the land with threats of murder. Based on this details, the police named the prime accused just in a few hours of the happened murder.

The name of the MLA was added in the FIR after Vijaya Lakshmi, aged 68 (mother of Bikla Shiva), witnessed that she saw the murder when she was standing on the balcony of her house.

Within 10 days of the murder of Shiva, the police had 16 people under arrest who were hired from the Kolar area to do the murder.

They were Kiran K aged 34, Pradeep K aged 27, Madan R aged 27, Vimal Raj, aged 31, Samuel V aged 24, Arun Temu aged 25, and Naveen K aged 24. 5 persons from Tekal village are arrested for doing the murder. They were brought on July 14th to Bengaluru do the murder on July 15th. The men were given with Rs 20 lakh each. They were paid with an initial amount of Rs 1.5 lakh. The persons who kept a watch on Shiva were paid Rs 30,000.

The main accused, Jaga made efforts to flee to Dubai through Chennai soon after the murder. CCTV visuals that were collected from his apartment showed him leaving in an Audi car 10 minutes after the murder. The police investigated calls got by the PA of the MLA. It was from the mobile phone of Jaga soon after the murder was done.

The real estate mafia gang has now divided the whole city. There is a gang leader for south area of Bengaluru. There is a gang leader for the western and north areas. They operate in a safe way under the defence of the local MLAs.

An anticipatory bail plea was soon filed by the Jagadish stating that there are no pending cases against him since the 1990s. The state prosecutor did not approve the bail plea and said that Jagadish was involved in past murders and had become wealthy in recent times. The court rejected the bail plea on 24th July.

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