Karnataka HC Summons Whitefield Police Officers Over Unlawful Custody of Man Who Posted About Comedy Show Cancellation
Justice M. Nagaprasanna found that Whitefield Police Station took a man into custody before the Section 35(3) BNSS notice period had even expired, calling this a repeated pattern of unlawful conduct at that station.
The High Court of Karnataka at Bengaluru has directed the Deputy Commissioner of Police, the Assistant Commissioner of Police, and the Police Sub-Inspector of the Whitefield Police Station to appear before it on 29 August 2026 at 2.30 p.m. Justice M. Nagaprasanna, sitting singly and hearing the matter via video conferencing, found that the police had taken the petitioner, Sri Mohan Gowda, into physical custody at 2.00 a.m. in Udupi — and only served him a Section 35(3) BNSS notice after securing him — even though that notice itself directed him to appear three days later. The court observed that this method of using a forward-dated appearance notice as cover for an immediate arrest is a pattern it has encountered from the same police station repeatedly.
The Facebook Post and the FIR
The sequence begins with an organisation called Hindu Rashtra Samanvaya Samithi submitting a representation to the Whitefield Police Station. The representation concerned a planned comedy show by Kunal Kamra at a venue called Uru in Whitefield. Following that representation, the show was cancelled. Mohan Gowda then posted on Facebook that the cancellation was a victory for Hindu unity.
A police constable at the Whitefield Police Station treated that post as the source of communal disharmony and registered Crime No. 573/2026, alleging offences under Sections 217 and 353(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023. The court's oral order characterises this as a suo motu action by the police constable, not a complaint by any private party, and describes the alleged disharmony as “imaginary disharmony overnight.”
Notice Issued, Custody Taken First
A notice under Section 173(2) of the BNSS was issued against the petitioner on 4 August 2025. A further notice under Section 35(3) of the BNSS, dated 5/6 August 2026, directed Gowda to appear before the police within three days.
The petitioner was at Udupi when the Whitefield police constable travelled there at 2.00 a.m. and took him into custody. The constable then brought Gowda back to the Whitefield Police Station. Critically, the Section 35(3) notice was handed to him only after he had already been secured and transported — and only at a point some distance from the police station itself. The notice that ostensibly gave him three days to appear was served after he was already in police hands.
The court identified this directly: the notice indicating a later date of appearance was used as a mechanism to take the petitioner into custody three days before that fixed date.
A Pattern the Court Has Seen Before
Justice Nagaprasanna did not treat this as an isolated lapse. The oral order records that this Court has repeatedly come across violations of law from the Whitefield Police Station. The same modus operandi — issuing a Section 35(3) BNSS notice with a future appearance date, then securing the person before that date arrives — has, according to the court, been employed by officers at that station before.
The court noted that once a Section 35(3) notice is served directing appearance on a specified date, taking the noticee into custody before that date defeats the entire purpose of the statutory notice regime under the BNSS. The notice is meant to preserve liberty pending voluntary compliance; using it as a pretext to justify prior detention inverts its function.
Directions to Police Officers
The court directed the Deputy Commissioner of Police, the Assistant Commissioner of Police, and the Police Sub-Inspector who carried out the custody to be personally present before it on 29 August 2026 at 2.30 p.m. The court added a warning: if the DCP and ACP fail to appear, it would be constrained to summon the Commissioner of Police of the City of Bengaluru to “set the house in order.”
The Learned High Court Government Pleader waived notice on behalf of the respondents.
Outcome
WP No. 25680/2026 is listed before Justice M. Nagaprasanna on 29 August 2026 at 2.30 p.m. The Deputy Commissioner of Police, Assistant Commissioner of Police, and the Police Sub-Inspector of Whitefield Police Station are required to be present in court. Failure by the senior officers to appear will expose the Commissioner of Police of Bengaluru City to a summons from this court.