Bangalore: Actress Pavitra Gowda, the main accused in the Renukaswamy murder case, along with her actor friend Darshan Thugudepa, were released from the Parappana Agrahara Central Jail on Tuesday.
The Karnataka High Court on Friday granted conditional bail to accused No. 1 Pavitra Gowda, accused No. 2 Darshan and other accused – R Nagaraju, Anu Kumar alias Anu, Laxman M, Jagadish alias Jagga and Pradush S Rao in the case.
Darshan was arrested on June 11. During the same period, 15 other co-accused were arrested along with Pavitra Gowda.
Darshan was already out on interim bail on medical grounds. He was released from Ballari Jail on October 30 after spending more than four months in jail, hours after the Karnataka High Court granted him a six-week reprieve on medical grounds for spinal surgery.
According to the police, Renukaswamy, 33, a fan of Darshan, allegedly sent obscene messages to his friend Pavitra Gowda, who allegedly killed the star actor after enraging him. His body was found on June 9 near a storm water drain near an apartment in Sumanahalli.
Raghavendra, an accused from Darshan’s fan club in Chitradurga, brought Renukaswamy to a shed in RR Nagar here on the pretext that the actor wanted to meet him. It is said that he was tortured and killed in that shed.
According to the postmortem report, Renukaswamy, a resident of Chitradurga, died due to shock and hemorrhage.
The police claimed that Pavitra was the “prime reason” for Renukaswamy’s murder, claiming that the investigation proved that she instigated the other accused, conspired with them and participated in the crime.