NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to Kannada actors Darshan Thoogudeepa, Pavithra Gowda, and others on a plea by the Karnataka government against the bail granted to them.
Karnataka Government Challenges Bail Granted to Darshan in Murder Case
A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan sought a response from Darshan and others on the state's plea against the Karnataka High Court's bail order of December 13.
Senior Advocate Siddarth Luthra, appearing for the Karnataka government, contended that this was one of those disturbing matters where the High Court has completely white-washed the whole case.
He asked the court to see the kind of torture the victim was put to, saying it was quite disturbing as he was picked-up in daylight.
SC Notice to Kannada Actors in Renukaswamy Murder Case Bail Dispute
The counsel insisted the co-accused should not be allowed to take advantage of this bail order by seeking parity.
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 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 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 a while, Luthra again mentioned the matter to point out other co accused have already been granted bail.
The court then 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.
The Karnataka government on January 6 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 of 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, Raghavendra, Nandish, Jagadish, Anukumar, Ravi Shankar, Dhanraj D, Vinay V, Nagaraju, Laxman, Deepak, Pradosh, Karthik, Keshavamurthy, and Nikhil Nayak.
The Karnataka High Court on December 13 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.
