Kannada actor-producer Darshan was arrested on Thursday, just hours after his bail in the case of a fan’s murder was cancelled by the Supreme Court. He was taken into custody after Pavithra Gowda, another actor and the prime accused, was arrested too.
The case relates to the abduction and murder last year of 33-year-old Renukaswamy, a fan of Darshan’s who had allegedly sent obscene messages to Pavithra Gowda, Darshan’s close friend. The victim reportedly held Gowda responsible for discord in Darshan’s marriage at the time.
His body was found near a drain in Sumanahalli, Bengaluru. Police said a member of Darshan’s fan club got Renukaswamy to come to a shed in RR Nagar locality on the pretext of meeting the actor. He was allegedly tortured before being killed.
The SC on Thursday directed that the trial be expedited too.
It pulled up the Karnataka high court while cancelling the bail.
“The order fails to record any special or cogent reasons… Instead, it reflects a mechanical exercise of discretion formed by significant omission of legally relevant facts,” the SC bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan said, passing orders on an appeal by the state government.
The SC further said that granting bail in such a serious case, without adequately considering its gravity and the interference with the trial, was an unwarranted exercise of discretion by the HC.
“Article 14 guarantees equality before law and prohibits arbitrariness. It mandates that all persons regardless of their popularity or privilege are equally subject to law,” the SC said in the order, setting aside the bail granted by the HC in December 2024.
Justice Pardiwala also warned the state against any privileges in jail for the accused.
“However big a person may be, he cannot be above the law. The day we know that the accused are provided with special or 5 star jail facilities, the first thing will be to put the jail superintendent under suspension”, the judge said.
Darshan, along with Pavithra Gowda and several others, is accused of abduction and murder.
Darshan was arrested on June 11, 2024, two days after the body of Renukaswamy was discovered in a drain. In the police chargesheet, filed in September 2024, Pavithra Gowda is named as the prime accused and Darshan as the second. Police alleged that Renukaswamy was harassing Gowda with lewd texts and images, apparently blaming her for Darshan’s marital discord.
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