Photo emerges showing Renukaswamy pleading for life before murder

A day after police filed a chargesheet against Kannada actor Darshan Thoogudeepa and other accused in the Renukaswamy murder case, a photograph of the victim pleading for life emerged on social media on Thursday.

“Fear writ large on a shirtless Renukaswamy’s face as he stared at the camera, the image is a tell-tale about the trauma he endured as he was given a torturous death,” a police official said, adding, several injury marks are also seen all over his body.

In another picture, the victim is seen lying on the ground near a parked truck.

According to police sources, he was beaten up with clubs, given electric shock in his private parts, and thrown against the wall leading to multiple fractures.

The chargesheet filed on Wednesday has the forensic report which confirms that Renukaswamy’s blood stains were found on Darshan’s clothes, the sources said.

Darshan along with his friend Pavithra Gowda and 15 others, who are accused in the case, are currently under judicial custody in different prisons in the state.

According to police sources, 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 stormwater 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 haemorrhage as a result of multiple blunt injuries.

Police sources 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.