The Karnataka High Court ordered a judicial magistrate to probe the death of a migrant worker in a police encounter in Hubballi on 13 April 2025 after he was arrested on charges of allegedly raping and murdering a five-year-old girl.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice CM Poonach passed the interim order on a PIL petition filed by the People’s Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL), Karnataka.
Ritesh Kumar, 35, a migrant worker from Bihar, was shot dead after he allegedly tried to strangle the wife of a police constable while trying to escape from police custody.
On April 15, 2025, the court directed the state government to strictly follow the directions issued by the Supreme Court in 2014 regarding the deaths of accused/suspects in police encounters.
However, it was argued on behalf of the petitioner that a separate First Information Report (FIR) should have been registered about the encounter death incident, mentioning the names of the police officers/personnel involved in the encounter, apart from the FIR registered against the accused person, and a judicial inquiry into the encounter death should be conducted as per the Supreme Court’s 2014 directions.
Advocate General K. Shashi Kiran Shetty told the Bench that the state government had no objection to a judicial inquiry, pointing out that the government had referred the case for an inquiry by a judicial magistrate, but the reference was dismissed due to a misinterpretation of the apex court’s directions.
However, the Advocate General said there was no need to register a separate FIR or name police officers/personnel in the FIR as the incident of the encounter had been officially recorded and the investigation into the cause of death of the accused in police custody had been referred to the Criminal Investigation Department.
“There is no plea for a judicial magistrate to conduct the investigation,” the Bench observed while taking cognizance of the apex court’s directions.
The bench also said that the concerned judicial magistrate should keep in mind the guidelines issued by the National Human Rights Commission for conducting investigations in cases of deaths in custody or during police intervention. The report on the investigation by the judicial magistrate must be submitted to the court on June 8, i.e. the next day of the hearing of the motion.
Published – 12 March 2026 20:49 IST
