Bengaluru, 17 Dec

Kannada actress Pavithra Gowda, the prime accused in the Renukaswamy murder case in which her actor-friend Darshan Thoogudeepa in also involved, walked out of the Parappana Agrahara central prison here on Tuesday.

The Karnataka High court on Friday had granted conditional bail to accused number 1 in the case, Pavithra Gowda, along with accused number 2 Darshan, and other accused - R Nagaraju, Anu Kumar alias Anu, Lakshman M, Jagadeesh alias Jagga and Pradoosh S Rao.

Darshan was arrested on 11 June. Pavithra Gowda, and 15 others co-accused in the case were arrested during the same period.

Darshan was already out on interim bail for medical reasons. He had walked out of Ballari jail on 30 October after being imprisoned for more than four months, hours after the Karnataka High Court gave him relief for six weeks on medical grounds, to undergo spine surgery.

According to police, 33-year-old Renukaswamy, a fan of Darshan, had allegedly sent obscene messages to his friend Pavithra Gowda, which enraged the star actor, allegedly leading to his murder. His body was found near a storm water drain next to an apartment in Sumanahalli here on June 9.

Raghavendra, one of the accused who is part of Darshan's fan club in Chitradurga, had brought Renukaswamy to a shed in RR Nagar here, on the pretext that the actor wanted to meet him. It was in this shed that he was allegedly tortured and murdered.

According to the post-mortem report, Renukaswamy, a native of Chitradurga, died due to shock and hemorrhage as a result of multiple blunt injuries.

Police have said Pavithra was the "major cause" for Renukaswamy's murder, claiming that it has been proved from the probe that she instigated other accused, conspired with them, and took part in the crime.