Renukaswamy murder case: Karnataka files petition in Supreme Court, challenges bail granted to actor Darshan

New Delhi: The Karnataka government on Monday filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the bail granted to actor Darshan Thoogudeepa and 16 others in the sensational Renukaswamy murder case.

A special leave petition has been filed against the December 13 Karnataka High Court order of granting bail to the accused. The plea has been filed through Krishna & Nishani Law Chambers.

Darshan, the 47-year-old Kannada actor, was arrested on June 11 in connection with the murder of 33-year-old Renukaswamy, a native of Chitradurga.

The victim’s body was discovered near a stormwater drain in Bengaluru on June 9.

According to the police, Renukaswamy had allegedly sent obscene messages to Darshan’s associate, Pavithra Gowda, which enraged the actor.

Police investigation led to the arrest of actor Darshan, his close friend Pavithra Gowda and 15 other associates.

The Bengaluru police also filed a chargesheet on September 3 naming Pavithra as accused number 1 and Darshan as the accused number 2.

Police claimed that Renukaswamy's act of sending offensive messages to Pavithra was the motive of the offence.

The others named in the charge sheet were Pawan K (29); Raghavendra (43); Nandish (28); Jagadish (36); Anukumar (25); Ravi Shankar (32); Dhanraj D (27); Vinay V (38); Nagaraju (41); Laxman (54); Deepak (39); Pradosh (40); Karthik (27); Keshavamurthy (27), and Nikhil Nayak (21).

On December 13, the Karnataka High Court granted conditional bail to Darshan.

The actor was already out on interim bail on medical grounds granted on October 30.

Pavithra, Nagaraju, Anu Kumar, Laxman, Jagadeesh and Pradoosh were also granted bail. All the 17 accused are currently out on bail.