BENGALURU: The High Court of Karnataka on Friday granted bail to actor Darshan and six other accused in the Renukaswamy murder case. The other accused are Pavithra Gowda, Nagaraju R, Anukumar, Lakshman M, Jagadeesh and Pradoosh S Rao.
The bail was granted on the grounds of delay in recording the statements of witnesses and non-furnishing of reasons for their arrest immediately to provide them an opportunity to defend themselves against custodial remand and to seek bail.
Noting that this procedure was in force since October 3, 2023, as per the orders of the Supreme Court and its non-compliance entitles the accused for bail, the court said the accused were arrested on different dates. However, the grounds for the arrest of all the accused are similar -- like a cyclostyled copy. Justice S Vishwajith Shetty stated these reasons for granting bail in his common order, while allowing the bail petitions filed by the accused.
The prosecution contended that a memo of grounds of arrest was served on the accused immediately after their arrest. The court, however, said if it is accepted, then the question arises as to why there was delay in recording the statements of the witnesses. More so, the statement of prime eyewitness Kiran, whose statement under 161 of CrPC was recorded on June 15 and another statement under Section 164 of CrPC on June 22, 2024, the court said.
Petitioners do not have serious criminal antecedents, says HC
The court said accused No 1, 2, 11, 12 and 14 were arrested on June 11 and accused No 6 and 7 on June 14. But the order sheet of the trial court shows no mention about the issuance of the memo of grounds of arrest to those accused immediately after their arrest.
The witnesses, in their statements, have not stated anything about their presence at the time of arrest of the accused or about signing the memo of grounds of arrest. A serious doubt arises about the contention of the prosecution, the court added.
Darshan and Pavithra Gowda were arrested on June 11, following the alleged kidnap and murder of Renukaswamy, who worked in a medical store in Chitradurga, at Pattanagere in RR Nagar of Bengaluru on June 8 for allegedly sending derogatory and obscene messages to Pavithra in the name of Goutham KS from his social media account.
Darshan was sent to judicial custody on June 22 and was released on interim bail on October 30 on medical grounds. After getting interim bail, Darshan got admitted in a private hospital in Bengaluru for treatment for back pain.
The court noted that the petitioners do not have serious criminal antecedents. They have been in custody for six months and the prosecution, in all, cited 262 witnesses and 587 documents in 13 volumes along with the chargesheet.
Therefore, the chances of the trial being completed in the near future is remote. If these factors are appreciated in the background of the judgments of the Supreme Court and the brief analysis of the material on record, the petitioners’ prayer for regular bail is to be answered affirmatively, the court said.