Propofol overdose death case: Karnataka HC denies Surgeon's bail plea
Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court has rejected the bail plea of a general surgeon accused of murdering his dermatologist wife by allegedly administering an overdose of the anaesthetic drug Propofol. The accused has been in judicial custody since his arrest in October 2025.
The case surfaced nearly six months after the woman's death in April 2025, when a forensic examination reportedly detected traces of an excessive amount of anaesthesia in her organs. Following the findings, police arrested the surgeon on suspicion of murder. Lower courts had also earlier declined to grant him bail.
On July 3, the investigating team filed an additional chargesheet before the trial court, placing on record further evidence collected during the investigation. According to the prosecution, the evidence suggests that the victim was allegedly administered 20 ml of Propofol through an intravenous (IV) line, resulting in her death.
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that a Bengaluru sessions court denied the doctor's bail plea in the alleged murder of his wife. The court cited digital and forensic evidence, including recovered chat messages, that indicated an attempt to conceal the crime. Investigators alleged that the accused administered an overdose of Propofol, and held that the digital records and forensic findings supported the prosecution's case.
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According to a report by TOI, after the offence and eight days before his arrest, the accused had searched an article, ‘Postmortem Propofol Levels: A case of Residual Detection Long After Administration’, and saved it in his mobile phone. He was curious to know whether the anaesthetic drug would get detected after its terminal phase. This was a major evidence on the basis of which his bail plea was rejected, Special Public Prosecutor P. Prasanna Kumar said.
The prosecution argued that the material collected during the investigation, including digital evidence recovered from the accused's mobile phone, played a significant role in the High Court's decision to deny bail. The case will now proceed before the trial court.
