27th ACMM Court remands actor, three others to JC till July 4; Darshan allotted undertrial prisoner number 6106

Bengaluru: Sandalwood actor Darshan, who was arrested on charge of murder of 33-year-old Renuka Swamy of Chitradurga, has been sent to 14-day Judicial Custody (JC) till July 4. This is the same prison where the actor was jailed 13 years ago in another case for assaulting his wife.

Darshan, along with three other accused — Pradosh, Vinay and Dhanraj — were remanded to JC by the 24th Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Court on Saturday, following which they have been lodged in the Parappana Agrahara Central Jail in city.

Darshan has been allotted Undertrial Prisoner Number- 6106 and has been kept in ‘B’ block in the jail, said a source.

Darshan, was arrested in the murder case on June 11 and was in 12-day Police custody since then. The Court had recently remanded 13 other accused, including Darshan’s friend Pavithra Gowda, to 14-day JC two days ago.

Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) Prasanna Kumar requested the judge to move some of the accused to different prisons. He argued that some accused faced life threat from the fans of the actor inside the jail. But Darshan’s counsel objection, prompting the Judge to defer the hearing to Monday (June 24).

A total of 17 people are accused in the murder of Renuka Swamy, a pharmacy chain employee from Chitradurga. He had allegedly sent lewd messages to Pavithra Gowda, forcing the accused to kidnap him from Chitradurga on June 8, only to torture and kill him later.

Renuka Swamy’s body was found near a drain adjacent to an apartment in Bengaluru’s Sumanahalli on June 9. His autopsy revealed details of gruesome torture. In September 2011, Darshan was arrested for assaulting his wife Vijayalakshmi and he had spent 28 days in Parappana Agrahara jail.