Stampede to violence against women: Key incidents that shaped 2025

ON June 4, thousands of cricket fans gathered exterior Bengaluru’s M Chinnaswamy bowl to fete the royal stag Challengers Bengaluru’s maiden amerindic Premier League (IPL) victory. What followed was a massive stampede that killed 11 people and left over 50 injured, mostly students and young fans— including a 13-year-old girl.Investigators later described a chain of administrative failures. “There were clear lapses in crowd regulation and movement. Once panic set in, people had nowhere to go,” a senior officer said during the initial probe. Criminal cases and departmental inquiries followed.The incident marked the city’s biggest tragedy in the year 2025.As the year draws to a close, HT’s review of major crimes reported across the state revealed a spectrum of events that revealed gaps in public safety, policing and rehabilitation of offenders. From major robberies and fraud to serious violent offences, many incidents drew public debate and shaped administrative discourse.In 2025, cases registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act climbed to 4,096, a surge of 5% from the 2023 figure of 3,900. Child rights activists warned against treating the numbers as abstractions. “Every case is not just a statistic. It shows how unsafe children continue to be in familiar spaces,” one activist said.A grim event underscored the reality behind the statistics when in April, a migrant worker from Bihar murdered a 5-year-old girl in Hubballi after attempting to sexually assault her. He was killed in an encounter with police while trying to evade arrest days later. CCTV footage showing the accused luring the child with snacks and carrying her away from her home was widely circulated.Violence against women remained a persistent fault line this year. Crimes against women in Karnataka rose by nearly 40% between 2021 and 2023, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).A woman returning home late at night in Bengaluru’s Sadduguntepalya area was stalked and molested in a narrow residential lane in April. Months later, in August, the murder of 42-year-old Lakshmidevamma by her son-in-law, a dentist, and 2 accomplices served to shock even seasoned investigators with its sheer brutality. The victim was dismembered and her body parts recovered from multiple locations.In October,a 32-year-old general surgeon, Dr Mahendra Reddy, was arrested for murdering his wife, respected 28-year-old dermatologist Dr Kruthika Reddy, via lethal injection in April. The disturbing revelation came around as a result of the victim’s sister’s persistent suspicions and a delayed viscera analysis. Dr Kruthika was set to open her dream clinic, “Skin & Scalpel,” in Bengaluru on May 4, 2025 just days after her death.Towards the end of the year, the alleged caste related killing of a 7 month pregnant woman by her father and relatives in Haveri district shocked the state. “This appears to be a clear case of honour killing,” an officer said.The temple town of Dharmasthala in Dakshina Kannada district emerged as the centre of a major criminal investigation in July after a former sanitation worker, initially anonymous and later identified as CN Chinnaiah, came forward with disturbing claims of being allegedly forced to aid in numerous secret burials of women and children over a period of two decades, with many bodies bearing signs of alleged rape.After allegations of mismanagement by the local police surfaced in the wake of the complaint, a special investigation team (SIT) was formed to examine the claims and search the forests surrounding the town for the bodies mentioned. The case also brought back to light the rape and murder of 17-year-old Sowjanya in the town in 2017.The SIT’s investigation and excavations yielded human remains at a few locations, but not conclusive evidence linking them to the alleged murders.Alleged inconsistencies in Chinnaiah’s testimony eventually led to his arrest in August on charges of perjury, and forensic reports raised further doubts about the origin of the remains.The Karnataka high court temporarily stayed the FIR at one stage, even as the SIT continued its probe. Authorities also identified several individuals— including local activists— accused of allegedly fabricating evidence.Another major political crime took place in May in Mangaluru, after repeat offender and Bajrang Dal activist Suhas Shetty was hacked to death. Shetty was an accused in the 2022 murder of Mohammad Fazil, and the killing raised immediate fears of retaliation.“Every such incident carries the risk of escalation. Our priority was to prevent a chain reaction,” a senior officer said as security was tightened across coastal districts.Weeks later, those fears appeared justified when Imtiyaz, a 42 year old pickup driver and mosque secretary, was hacked to death in Bantwal taluk in what investigators described as a revenge killing.The violence led to additional deployments, the creation of a Special Action Force and the transfer of the Suhas Shetty case to the National Investigation Agency.In November, Bengaluru witnessed the year’s most brazen robbery after a gang impersonating government officials intercepted a van belonging to a cash management system firm, hijacked the vehicle and later abandoned it, escaping with ₹7.11 crore without a single shot fired.The crime appeared audacious but straightforward until investigators began tracing how the suspects knew the van’s route, timing and weak points.The inquiry soon revealed an uncomfortable truth. A serving head constable was arrested, and other policemen were suspended for allegedly leaking information and facilitating the robbery.“This was not a random robbery. The accused knew the route, the timing and the vulnerabilities. That kind of knowledge does not come without insider help,” an officer involved in the probe said. Nearly the entire amount was recovered within days, but the case left behind a question that lingered long after the arrests: how secure is the system meant to protect the public when those within it turn complicit.Bengaluru’s Parappana Agrahara Central Prison faced repeated law-and-order challenges in 2025, with multiple incidents exposing corruption and security lapses. Between October and December, several prison warders were arrested for attempting to smuggle contraband, including smartphones, earphones, cigarettes, and narcotics, into the high-security facility.In one instance, a warden was caught concealing a cellphone and accessories and admitted he had been promised payment for delivering them inside.Previous probes had revealed prisoners hosting parties, using mobile phones, and possessing other banned items, prompting FIRs and the suspension or transfer of senior prison officials.The year also saw the arrest of three people, including a prison psychiatrist and an assistant sub-inspector, accused by the National Investigation Agency of assisting a high-security inmate — a convicted Lashkar-e-Taiba operative — by providing phones and sensitive security information.In November, one of the largest “digital arrest” schemes reported in the state emerged after a 57-year-old senior IT executive filed a complaint alleging that she was allegedly manipulated into transferring a total sum of ₹31.83 crore to a gang posing as officials from courier services, cybercrime units, the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Reserve Bank of India.“The victim was psychologically trapped. She was told not to speak to anyone and was made to believe arrest was imminent,” an officer said.