Bengaluru police to challenge bail granted to actor Darshan in SC

Bengaluru Police Commissioner B Dayananda on Tuesday said that an appeal will be filed in the Supreme Court soon challenging the interim bail granted to Kannada actor Darshan Thoogudeepa, who is an accused in the Renukaswamy murder case.

The 47-year-old had walked out of Ballari jail on October 30 after being imprisoned for more than four months, hours after the Karnataka High Court gave him relief for six weeks on medical grounds, to undergo spine surgery.

“The process is on and at the earliest we will file an appeal in the Supreme Court,” Dayananda told reporters in response to a question.

Darshan was arrested on June 11. His friend Pavithra Gowda and 15 others are co-accused in the case.

Pavithra is lodged in Bengaluru prison, and others in various jails of the state; some of them had recently got bail.

According to police, 33-year-old Renukaswamy, a fan of the actor, had sent obscene messages to Pavithra, which enraged Darshan, allegedly leading to his murder. His body was found near a storm water drain next to an apartment in Sumanahalli here on June nine.

Raghavendra, one of the accused who is part of Darshan’s fan club in Chitradurga, had brought Renukaswamy to a shed in R R Nagar here, on the pretext that the actor wanted to meet him. It was in this shed that he was allegedly tortured and murdered.

According to the post-mortem report, Renukaswamy, a native of Chitradurga, died due to shock and hemorrhage as a result of multiple blunt injuries.

Police have said Pavithra, who is accused number one, was the “major cause” for Renukaswamy’s murder, claiming that it has been proved from the probe that she instigated other accused, conspired with them, and took part in the crime.