NEW DELHI: In a major setback to the Kanada actor, Darshan and others, the Supreme Court on Friday in its order rejected his bail plea in the Renukaswamy murder case.
It directed the Bengaluru court to expedite the hearing, after noting that the progress so far is "very slow".
"Though the trial is progressing slowly, the petitioner (Darshan) was not eligible to obtain bail for one year," said a Bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and Vijay Bishnoi.
The top court also directed the Karnataka government to ensure that Darshan is provided all the prison amenities as per the jail manuals to which an undertrial prisoner is entitled.
Meanwhile, the trial is conducted in a day-to-day manner by first examining 60 important witnesses in the case.
The top court also perused a report from the Civil and Sessions Judge, Bengaluru, which revealed that the charge was framed in the case on November 3, 2025.
It, however, ordered that there is no need to keep the applicant in solitary confinement and clarified that the applicant (Darshan) would be entitled to move for another bail application if there is no substantial progress in the trial.
The apex court was informed that the present case was being taken up on every Monday and Tuesday exclusively by the in-charge Court (CCH-64) as the regular court (CCH-57) is vacant.
The prosecution has examined 10 witnesses to date.
On July 24 last year, the Supreme Court reserved the Karnataka High Court order granting bail to Darshan and six others in the Renukaswamy murder case, as it termed the Karnataka HC decision in granting bail as a 'perverse exercise' of discretionary power used by the HC.
According to the prosecution, Darshan, a 47-year-old Kannada actor, was arrested on June 11, 2024, 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, 2024.
After the investigation, the Bengaluru police filed a charge sheet and arrayed 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 for the offence committed by Darshan and others.
Initially, a Sessions Court had rejected the bail of Darshan, forcing him to knock on the doors of the State HC, which granted him relief. It then forced the Karnataka government to knock on the doors of the top court seeking cancellation of bail.