The Karnataka High Court has rejected a petition from a woman serving as a police sub-inspector, seeking to annul a case filed against her for purportedly assaulting a lawyer who had come to a police station to report a road-rage incident.
Justice M. Nagaprasanna ruled against the petition submitted by Padmavathi T.B., imposing a financial penalty of Rs 1 lakh for concealing important information in an effort to obtain a temporary stay on further investigation, which had previously been granted by another bench of the high court.
In April, the court instructed the Bengaluru police to initiate a criminal case against the sub-inspector. The court remarked, “This is a situation where the actions of the police sub-inspector warrant accountability, not merely through a departmental inquiry, but by formally registering a crime and conducting an investigation.”
Consequently, police filed a First Information Report (FIR) against her under sections 115(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS)—for voluntarily causing hurt—and sections 74 and 352, which pertain to assault on a woman with the intent to outrage her modesty and intentionally provoking a breach of peace, respectively.
During the proceedings on Tuesday, the court highlighted that the petition from the sub-inspector failed to mention the earlier court orders that led to the registration of the crime against her. “The interim order was obtained by suppressing the very basis for the crime’s registration, specifically the court’s directive,” the court stated.
The court further commented, “As a result of this material suppression, the petition must be dismissed, and a significant cost of Rs 1 lakh is to be paid to the Karnataka State Legal Services Authority within eight weeks from today.”
Additionally, the court authorized the police to continue their investigation into the matter. “The findings of the investigation should be presented to this court before submitting the final report to the relevant court,” the order specified.
In the related road-rage incident from 2025, the advocate who claims to have been assaulted by the sub-inspector has also approached the high court. She seeks to have a case against her quashed, which alleges that she vandalized the police station where she reported the road-rage incident.
The advocate recounted that an auto-rickshaw had overtaken her vehicle, stopped abruptly in front of her, and thrown a stone that shattered her car’s window on the night of February 23-24, 2025. Upon arriving at Madiwala police station around 11:30 PM to file her complaint, she reportedly had to wait for approximately two hours. Frustrated, she allegedly caused a disturbance in the station by throwing papers and items off a desk.
Sub-inspector Padmavathi, who was conducting a night patrol, arrived at the station and is accused of assaulting the advocate, an incident that was reportedly captured on the station’s CCTV footage.
Although the advocate did not file a complaint against Padmavathi, the police subsequently charged her under BNS sections 121(1)—for voluntarily causing hurt or grievous injury to deter a public servant from performing their duties—132, which pertains to assault or criminal force against a public servant, and 351(2) concerning criminal intimidation.
