Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday granted a six-week interim bail to actor Darshan Thoogudeepa, who is the prime suspect in the Renukaswamy murder case, on medical grounds for spine surgery. As a condition of the bail, Darshan is required to surrender his passport. He is currently incarcerated in Ballari jail in Karnataka.
Justice S. Vishwajith Shetty had deferred the decision on Darshan’s interim bail plea on Tuesday after hearing detailed arguments from his lawyer, senior advocate C.V. Nagesh, and the state’s public prosecutor, P. Prasanna Kumar.
At the hearing, the state presented sealed medical reports from the doctors at Ballari Central Prison and the head of Neurology at a government hospital in Ballari, where Darshan is detained.
Nagesh contended that Darshan is suffering from numbness in both feet and sought approval for him to have surgery at a private hospital in Mysuru, with the actor bearing all related expenses.
According to police reports, 33-year-old Renukaswamy, a fan of Darshan, allegedly sent obscene messages to Pavithra Gowda, Darshan’s friend and a co-accused in the case, which angered Darshan and supposedly led to the murder.
Renukaswamy’s body was discovered on June 9 near a stormwater drain by an apartment in Sumanahalli, Bengaluru. Police investigations revealed that Raghavendra, one of Darshan’s fan club members in Chitradurga, brought Renukaswamy to a shed in R.R. Nagar, claiming that Darshan wanted to meet him. It was there that Renukaswamy was reportedly tortured and murdered.
The post-mortem report revealed that Renukaswamy, a native of Chitradurga, died from shock and haemorrhage due to multiple blunt injuries.
Police have identified Pavithra, the primary accused, as a key instigator in Renukaswamy’s murder, asserting that she conspired with others involved and played an active role in the crime.
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