Hubballi encounter death: Karnataka High Court orders inquiry by judicial magistrate

The High Court of Karnataka has ordered an inquiry by a judicial magistrate into the death of a migrant worker in a police encounter in Hubballi on April 13, 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 C.M. Poonacha, 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 a woman police constable while trying to escape from police custody.

The court on April 15, 2025 directed the State government to follow scrupulously the guidelines issued by the Supreme Court in 2014 regarding the deaths of accused/suspected persons in police encounters.

However, it was argued on behalf of the petitioner that a separate first information report (FIR) should have been registered on the incident of death in the encounter by naming the police officers/personnel involved in the encounter, in addition to the FIR registered against the accused person, and a judicial inquiry into the death in encounter should be conducted as per apex court’s 2014 guidelines.

Advocate-General K. Shashi Kiran Shetty told the Bench that the State government had no objection to conduct a judicial inquiry, while pointing out that the government did refer the case for conduct of an inquiry by a judicial magistrate, but the reference was rejected due to misreading of the apex court’s guidelines.

The Advocate-General, however, said that there was no need to register a separate FIR or naming the police officers/ personnel in the FIR as the incident of encounter was officially recorded and the investigation into the cause of death of the accused person while in the police custody was referred to the Criminal Investigation Department.

“There is no cavil that an inquiry be conducted by a judicial magistrate,” the Bench observed on noting the apex court’s guidelines.

The Bench also said that the judicial magistrate concerned should bear in mind the guidelines issued by the National Human Rights Commission for conducting an inquiry in cases of death in custody or in the course of police action. The report of the inquiry by the judicial magistrate has to be submitted to the court on June 8, the next date of hearing on the petition.