No home food for Darshan, Pavithra and others accused in Renukaswamy murder case

The High Court of Karnataka on Tuesday stayed a trial court order directing the Bengaluru prison superintendent to provide home-cooked food to Kannada film star Darshan Thoogudeepa, his friend Pavithra Gowda and others accused in the Renukaswamy murder case. 

Justice M Nagaprasanna passed the order on a petition filed by the state government challenging the trial court order. 

“I deem it appropriate to stay the orders dated December 29, 2025, and January 12, 2026, till the next date of hearing. Emergent notices to the respondents (Pavithra Gowda and two others) to be served through the jail superintendent,” Justice Nagaprasanna said, observing that the trial court had not followed the procedure prescribed under the prison rules and that the order runs counter to the order passed by the Supreme Court while cancelling the bail to the accused in the
case.

At the hearing, Additional State Public Prosecutor B N Jagadeesha submitted that during trial in the murder case, on December 29, 2025, three accused — Pavithra Gowda (accused-1), R Nagaraja (accused -11) and M Lakshman (accused-12) — made an oral submission. They sought permission from the judge to have food from their homes. Considering this oral submission, the trial court directed the jail authorities to provide home-cooked food. 

Jagadeesha pointed out that the Supreme Court had deprecated providing any special treatment to the accused, particularly in the present case. 

The state petition stated that on January 5, 2026, officials of the Central Prison, Bengaluru, filed a request before the trial court for clarification of the order. 

On January 12, 2026, the trial court passed a detailed order, directing the prison authorities to allow three accused (accused 1, 11 and 12) to receive home-cooked food once a week and, in other circumstances, to provide the same to the other accused in the case as and when the doctor advised. 

The petition stated that no prisoner in the state is given any relaxation to have home-cooked food, unless it is prescribed by the Medical Officer, and said the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India has issued a certificate grading 4-star to the prison food. 

Justice Nagaprasanna noted that the trial court had passed the order in blatant ignorance of the Supreme Court order and also issued a show-cause notice to the state as to why the food is not granted as directed by the court. 

“The Supreme Court observes that “the day we come to know that the accused are provided with some special or 5-star treatment in the jail premises, the first step in the process will be to place the jail superintendent under suspension including all other officials involved in such misconduct. The Supreme Court observes that providing special food to certain prisoners, albeit they are undertrial prisoners, would be a misconduct,” Justice Nagaprasanna said in the order.

The court also noted that the food can be provided from the house under special circumstances for which elaborate procedure is prescribed under the prison rules.

“As the Supreme Court had held that “a prison is a prisoner, undertrial prisoner or otherwise”. Special treatment to some and normal treatment to some would be in violation of law. This is what the concerned court has now directed,” the court said, ordering emergent notices to Pavithra Gowda and two others, to be served through the jail superintendent.