Bengaluru, 30 Dec

State government has taken steps to challenge the bail granted to Kannada actor Darshan Thoogudeepa and others in the Renukaswamy murder case. Senior Supreme Court advocate Anil C Nishani has been appointed to represent the state in the matter.

The decision to file a special leave petition (SLP) against the High Court’s order was confirmed in an official communication issued by Somanatha, First Additional Solicitor and Ex-Officio Deputy Secretary to the Government (Home Department). The government has sanctioned the preparation and filing of the SLP before the Supreme Court.

The state has also engaged senior advocate Siddarth Luthra as special counsel to argue the case. The public prosecutor has been directed to coordinate the preparation of the SLP.

Darshan Thoogudeepa, along with co-accused Pavithra Gowda and others, was arrested in connection with the kidnapping and murder of Renukaswamy, a resident of Chitradurga. Renukaswamy was allegedly killed in Bengaluru in June, purportedly at Thoogudeepa’s behest, following allegations that he had sent lewd messages to Gowda.

Thoogudeepa was granted interim bail on medical grounds on 30 October after spending 131 days in custody. However, on 13 December, the High Court granted regular bail to both Thoogudeepa and Gowda. This development came despite Bengaluru Police Commissioner B Dayananda’s recommendation to the state government to appeal against the actor’s bail.

In September, Bengaluru police submitted a detailed 3,991-page chargesheet naming 17 accused individuals. Apart from Thoogudeepa (Accused No. 2) and Gowda (Accused No. 1), the chargesheet included Pawan K, 29, Raghavendra, 43, Nandish, 28, Jagadish, 36, Anukumar, 25, Ravi Shankar, 32, Dhanraj D, 27, Vinay V, 38, Nagaraju, 41, Laxman, 54, Deepak, 39, Pradosh, 40, Karthik, 27, Keshavamurthy, 27 and Nikhil Nayak, 21. Currently all the accused are out on bail. -Salar News