High Court of Karnataka
The Karnataka High Court on Friday ordered the Superintendent of Police to explain his conduct in not giving a copy of the First Information Report (FIR) and making officials of a private firm involved in the research, development and testing of drones and unmanned aerial vehicles sit in a police station for over six hours and demand financial and other details of the company.
The court also stayed the investigation based on an FIR registered suo motu by the Doddaballapur rural police on January 29 against initially unknown persons and a notice issued to company officials on January 30. FIR was registered under Section 125 (act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 329(3) (Bharataya. Nijahita offence)
Justice M. Nagaprasanna passed the interim order on the petition by Bengaluru-based Newspace Research and Technologies, which supplies drones to the Indian armed forces and has its testing center on a 48-acre leased plot in Doddaballapur.
The petition stated that a light research drone belonging to the company suffered a battery failure during a routine test and on June 29 glided beyond its premises and landed smoothly on a neighboring property. However, the company did not start search operations as it was dark.
Suo motu PRO
Later, a police constable reached the spot based on a tip-off received by the police control station, who took the drone to the police station and subsequently an FIR was registered on the same day against unknown persons. However, on January 30, the notice was delivered to company officials.
Officials informed the police inspector that the company is a licensed drone research and testing agency under the control of the Director General of Civil Aviation, its testing is a legally permitted activity under the Drones Rules, 2021 and other laws, besides explaining the circumstance behind which it slipped out of its bounds and landed on a neighboring property.
However, Police Inspector Sadiq Pasha refused to provide a copy of the FIR and wanted the CEO of the company to come to the police station and provide details of the number of employees working, turnover, revenue etc. and kept the officials sitting at the station for about six hours. Finally, a copy of the FIR was provided after the company’s legal counsel said they would be forced to file a complaint with the Lokayukta.
Published – 06 Feb 2026 21:07 IST