Karnataka High Court bins plea by SI who ‘hit’ woman lawyer at police station, fines her Rs 1 lakh

3 min readBengaluruUpdated: Jun 9, 2026 09:44 PM IST

The Karnataka High Court permitted the police to further investigate the assault case against the SI. (File Photo)

The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition filed by a woman police sub-inspector to quash a case registered against her for allegedly assaulting an advocate who had visited a police station to report a road-rage incident.

Justice M Nagaprasanna dismissed the petition filed by Padmavathi T B and imposed a cost of Rs 1 lakh on her for suppressing material facts to secure an interim stay on all further investigation from a coordinate bench of the high court earlier.

In April, the court directed the Bengaluru police to register a criminal case against the sub-inspector. The court then said, “It is a fit case where the police sub-inspector who has indulged in such an act must be brought to book not by a mere warning of department inquiry but by registration of a crime and conduct of investigation.”

The police then registered an FIR under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections 115(2), (voluntarily causing hurt) 74 (assault or criminal force to a woman with intent to outrage her modesty), and 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace).

During the hearing on Tuesday, the court noted that the sub-inspector’s petition did not contain even a whisper about the orders passed by the court in the companion petition, pursuant to which the crime was registered against her.

“The interim order is secured suppressing the very foundation of registration of crime, that is, the order passed by the court,” it said.

The court added, “Therefore, not for anything but for that material suppression, the petition deserves to be dismissed, with an exemplary cost of Rs 1 lakh, to be paid to Karnataka State Legal Services Authority, within 8 weeks from today.”

Story continues below this ad

The court permitted the police to further investigate the case.

“The result of the investigation shall be placed before this court, prior to placing the final report before the concerned court,” the order read.

A 2025 road-rage incident and its aftermath

The advocate, allegedly assaulted by the sub-inspector, has approached the high court seeking to quash a case registered against her on charges of ransacking the police station she approached to report the road-rage incident.

According to the advocate, an autorickshaw overtook her car, stopped in front of it, and threw a stone, breaking her vehicle’s window glass on the intervening night between February 23 and 24, 2025. When she reached the Madiwala police station around 11.30 pm to report the incident, she had to wait for about two hours. She allegedly became agitated and ransacked the station, throwing papers and other items off a desk.

Story continues below this ad

Sub-inspector Padmavathi, who was on night patrol, arrived at the police station and assaulted the advocate—an incident allegedly captured on CCTV cameras.

Though the advocate did not file a complaint against Padmavathi, the police booked the advocate under BNS sections 121(1), (voluntarily causing hurt or grievous hurt to deter public servant from his duty) 132 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 351(2) (criminal Intimidation).