Supreme Court refuses to cancel bail of actor Darshan, others in Renukaswamy murder case

Darshan was arrested on June 11, 2024, for allegedly killing his fan Renukaswamy on June 8 the same year after he reportedly sent obscene messages to Gowda.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday declined for now to interfere with the Karnataka High Court's order granting bail to Kannada actors Darshan Thoogudeepa, Pavithra Gowda, and others in the Renukaswamy murder case but agreed to examine the Karnataka government's plea questioning its validity.

A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan issued notice to Darshan and others on the state's plea against the Karnataka High Court's bail order.

Senior Advocate Siddarth Luthra, appearing for the Karnataka government, contended that this was one of those disturbing matters where the High Court has completely whitewashed the whole case.

He asked the court to see the kind of torture the victim was put through, saying it was quite disturbing as he was picked up in daylight.

The counsel insisted the co-accused should not be allowed to take advantage of this bail order by seeking parity.

Agreeing to his plea, the court, said the High Court's order should not be considered as basis for other co-accused to seek bail in the matter.

"Since the state is praying for cancellation of bail, it would not be proper to stay the operation of the order as it would amount to cancellation of bail. Yet, to protect the interest of the prosecution, if any co-accused prays on bail, the court concerned shall not place reliance on the order challenged before us. Any bail application filed shall be decided on its own merit," the bench said.

After the end of the board, Luthra again mentioned the matter to point out that other co-accused have already been granted bail.

On this, the court said it would clarify in the order that other accused if not granted bail should not seek benefit of the High Court's relief to Darshan.

On January 6, the Karnataka government 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 was filed against the December 13, 2024, Karnataka High Court order granting bail to the accused. The plea has been filed through Krishna & Nishani Law Chambers.

Darshan, a 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 charge sheet 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.