Karnataka High Court Asks State To Report On Probe Regarding Alleged Encounter Of Migrant Labourer Booked For Murder

The Karnataka High Court on Monday (July 14) asked the state government to file a status report regarding the investigation carried out in a case related to alleged police encounter of a migrant labourer from Bihar who was accused of killing a minor girl. 

A division bench of Acting Chief Justice V Kameswar Rao and Justice C M Joshi said, “The respondent (AGA) is allowed to file a status report with regard to the investigation within three weeks from today.”

The matter will be heard next on August 11.

The deceased, Ritesh Kumar, was accused of killing a 5-year-old girl in Huballi. On April 13, he was  shot by the police. As per the police, the accused was shot after he was trying to flee from them.

The directions were given while hearing a petition filed by the People's Union for Civil Liberties, Karnataka who had approached the court seeking registration of FIR against the policemen and respondents to follow the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court in PUCL V. State of Maharashtra (2014) in cases of death caused by police actions.

Earlier the court had permitted the State Government to bury the dead body of the deceased after permission was sought by the state government saying the post mortem on the deceased body has been undertaken and body parts as required are preserved to aid the investigation.

The plea prays for a direction to constitute an independent court-monitored committee, which should be directed to examine the FIR's registered in the case, general/daily diary register entry of the relevant police station on the day of the incident, wireless log book record of the relevant police station (or district police wireless hq, where such log is maintained) of the delay of incident, log book records of the day, of government vehicles used by all police officers engaged in the said encounter, call details records (cdr) of mobile phones used by the all police officers engaged in the encounter (date range one week prior to date of encounter).

Further, to recover and preserve evidentiary material, including blood-stained earth, hair, fibers and threads etc., related to the death. Direct that the investigation of the extra-judicial killing be handed over to the CBI and direct for the arrest and prosecution of all police personnel who participated in the killing of the deceased-accused in accordance with law.

Case Title: People's Union for Civil Liberties AND State of Karnataka

Case No: WP 11397/2025.