Karnataka is being rocked by the news of a top South Indian actor, producer, and distributor specializing in Kannada cinema, Darshan Thoogudeepa, being named Accused No. 2 in the murder case of a 33-year-old man, S. Renukaswamy. A die-hard fan of the actor, Renukaswamy was abducted, tortured and killed for allegedly sending obscene and abusive messages to the actor’s girlfriend, Pavithra Gowda who is the prime accused in the case. The police in Karnataka have started piecing together the grisly details of the case—information they shared with The Sunday Guardian.
According to the police, Pavithra Gowda, who too is an actor had complained to her boyfriend of 10 years, Darshan that one of his fans, S. Renukaswamy from Chitradurga district in Karnataka has been sending obscene and abusive messages on her Instagram handle, that had left her humiliated in front of her lakhs of fans on social media. Pavithra Gowda complained to Darshan that the messages sent by Renukaswamy were lewd and derogatory in nature and that he wouldn’t stop.
The bone of contention for this dispute between Pavithra Gowda and Renukaswamy is that the latter wanted his idol (Darshan) to get back with his legally wedded wife Vijaya Lakshmi and lead a normal life.
Renukaswamy wanted Darshan to dump Pavithra Gowda who had entered his idol’s life, endangering the actor’s 24-year-old marital life. Darshan had married Vijaya Lakshmi in 2000 and also has a son with his wife. However, their marriage hit the rocks in 2011 when Vijaya Lakshmi alleged that she was a victim of domestic abuse and later on filed police complaints against her film actor husband Darshan which made him distance himself from her.
The Sandalwood actor’s two million fan-following was also a divided lot. While a majority of the fans supported the actor and his marital life with Vijaya Lakshmi, a good chunk of them supported Pavithra Gowda, who was being spotted with the actor quite often in his public life and Gowda had openly claimed that she was indeed in a relationship with Darshan for a long time. This also led to ugly spats on social media between Vijaya Lakshmi and Pavithra Gowda, who is also married to a different person and has a daughter, but is estranged from her husband.
HOW IT ALL STARTED
It has been a while since Pavithra Gowda repeatedly complained to Darshan that one of his fans, Renukaswamy had been bothering her with lewd and derogatory messages on her Instagram handle for a long time, the police say. Pavithra Gowda nagged Darshan on the issue to an extent, questioning his stardom in the film industry and complained that he was unable to help her, the police told The Sunday Guardian.
It was then that Darshan contacted one of his fan-associations’ president in Chitradurga district, Raghavendra and instructed him to inquire about Renukaswamy.
Renukaswamy had been working as a pharmacist in Chitradurga. He was married for about a year and his wife was expecting a child, the police said. As Renukaswamy was also a Darshan fan, it was easy for Raghavendra to trace him and instantly befriend him. Raghavendra was also waiting for impressing upon his idol Darshan, the police said.
After Raghavendra managed to get acquainted with Renukaswarny, it all went as per Darshan’s directions, the investigating officials have learnt. Raghavendra and his associates asked Renukaswamy to come to Bengaluru along with a few other fans so that he could meet his idol Darshan. Unsuspecting, Renukaswamy told his family that he was headed to a friend’s house and that he would arrive back late and left Chitradurga for Bengaluru.
Renukaswamy left with Raghavendra and two other fans, Jagadish alias Jagga and Anu Kumar for Bengaluru. Investigation by the police reveals that Renukaswamy was not abducted but was coaxed to be brought to Bengaluru in the pretext of meeting his idol. He had even had food with his “abductors” and was allowed to attend nature’s call during his journey to Bengaluru, the cab driver told the police.
On 8 June, Renukaswamy was brought by Raghavendra and his associates to a shed situated at Pattanagere in Rajarajeshwari Nagar near Kengeri in west Bengaluru.
UNIDENTIFIED BODY IN A STORM WATER DRAIN
On 9 June, a security guard of an apartment and a food delivery man alerted the police about the body of a man being eaten by dogs in a storm water drain in Sumanahalli near an apartment complex (Anugraha Apartment) in Kamakshipalya police limits. As the police did their preliminary inquiries and shifted the body for postmortem and started probing the identity of the body, the same day (9 June) four men turned up at the Kamakshipalya police station and surrendered themselves. They confessed that they were the ones who had killed Renukaswamy over a financial dispute and had dumped his body in the drain. When they got the news that the police found the victim’s body they decided to surrender themselves before the police, the four said.
However, as the investigation progressed, the police did not find any evidence of financial dispute and upon interrogating the four individually and collectively, the cops realised that they were trying to mislead the police with their inconsistent statements.
It was then the interrogation intensified, after which the cops learnt about the involvement of film actor Darshan, his girlfriend Pavithra Gowda and a few others from the film industry, fans’ association members, the actor’s drivers and close friends in the murder of Renukaswamy.
Darshan was arrested on 11 June, while he was stepping out of a gym to head to his farmhouse in Mysore, pretending to the cops as if he knew nothing about what had happened. He was brought to Bengaluru and was taken to the Annapurneshwari Nagar police station for inquiries. Pavithra Gowda too was subsequently arrested after she claimed to be taking treatment at a private hospital.
While Deputy Commissioner of Police (West Division) S. Girish led the team along with Vijayanagar subdivision Assistant Commissioner of Police Chandan Gowda, the Bengaluru police started arresting one culprit after the other in the case. So far, a total of 17 people have been arrested in the case naming Pavithra Gowda as the prime accused, Darshan as A2 and the others as co-accused.
The others arrested are, Vinay V., who owns a restobar named Stony Brook, and a close aide of Darshan; Raghavendra, Darshan’s fans’ association president in Chitradurga; as well as Nagaraju R., Laxman M., Pradosh Rao, Pawan K., Deepak Kumar M., Nandish, Nikhil Nayak, Karthik, Keshava Murthy, Ravi, Jagadish alias Jagga Anu Kumar and Raju.
Nagaraju R. and Laxman M. were working as driver and spare driver for Darshan and the two had gone shopping to buy a full-sleeved hoodie for Raghavendra as he had a tattoo of actor Darshan on his forearm. Laksman M. also drove for Pavithra Gowda. Nagaraju is the prime accused in the torture and murder of Renukaswamy and Raghavendra was one among the three accused who decided to surrender before the police claiming that he had killed Renukaswamy over a financial row. The full-sleeved hoodie was purchased to conceal Renukaswamy’s tattoo from the cops so as to avoid unnecessary conversations with the police.
The other accused persons, Pradosh Rao and Pawan K. were common friends of Pavithra Gowda and Darshan, while Deepak Kumar M., Nandish, Karthik, Keshavamurthy, Nikhil Nayak and Raghavendra who is the fans association president, knew the actors through others, the police said.
WHAT HAPPENED AT THE SHED?
According to the police, it was Vinay V. who orchestrated the plan of bringing Renukaswamy to his uncle Jayaram’s yard in Pattanagere where seized vehicles used to be parked. Ravi Shankar, who drove the cab, told the police that at least 30 goons were waiting at a shed in the yard to beat up Renukaswamy “to teach him a lesson”. But soon after seeing a scared Renukaswamy, many of the goons started leaving the yard.
It was then that around a dozen of Darshan’s close associates including Vinay and Raghavendra started to beat up and torture Renukaswamy for allegedly sending Pavithra Gowda lewd and defamatory Instagram posts. They allegedly tied him up and assaulted him with sticks and other objects. Police sources also confirmed that at the time Darshan was partying at a pub and after learning that Renukaswamy had been brought to the shed in Bengaluru, the actor visited the shed and confronted Renukaswamy and foul-mouthed him. Even Pavithra Gowda was present at the shed when Darshan met the victim and she is said to have thrown her slipper at Renukaswamy and abused him for sending her such obscene and abusive messages.
Later, after Darshan and Pavithra Gowda left the yard, it was the turn of the others to torture and repeatedly assault Renukaswamy. Allegedly, Renukaswamy, who had been tied up, was thrown against a wall because of which the back of his head got smashed against a parked truck on the yard. Renukaswamy was also administered electric shocks on his genitals, postmortem report reveals. Renukaswamy’s death was caused by the possible shock and the hemorrhage he sustained at the back of his back of his head, the postmortem report concludes.
Though Renukaswamy was assaulted by a dozen men including Darshan to “teach him a lesson” he breathed his last in the middle of the night, sending his assailants into a tizzy, resulting in one of them calling and informing Vinay and subsequently Darshan about the unexpected development.
It was then that the disposal of his body into a storm water drain was planned and decided. Two SUVs were used to dispose Renukaswamy’s body—one a Mahindra Scorpio that was carrying the body of the victim, followed by a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon in the wee hours of the night. The Scorpio’s owner was Pradosh Rao while the Jeep Wrangler Rubicon belonged to the restopub owner Vinay V., the police said. They dumped Renukaswamy’s body into a storm water drain in Sumanahalli, thinking that the body would be washed away in the rains and eaten by bandicoots and dogs, but the body lay on the bed of the “raja kaluve,” the police added.
Accused Raghavendra who was helping to dispose of the body of Renukaswamy had not only removed the gold chain and the wallet belonging to the victim from his person, but also threw both Renukaswamy’s mobile and his own mobile into the storm water drain in order to destroy all evidence, the cops have learnt. Though the police are unable to recover the mobile phones from the drain, they have recovered Renukaswamy’s gold chain and wallet from Raghavendra’s house in Chitradurga later.
‘DARSHAN PAID RS 20 LAKH’
During the course of investigation, the cops learnt that Darshan through his friend Deepak, who is the relative of an MLA, had offered Rs 5 lakh each to Raghavendra, Karthik, Keshavamurthy and Nikhil Nayak, to ensure that Darshan’s name should not come up anywhere during their surrender to the police, stated the remand report. Deepak also convinced the four fall guys that more money (Rs 10 lakh) would be given to their families for their livelihood until the time they came out of the jail, the remand report added.
The city police team probing the case is headed by DCP S. Girish and ACP Chandan Gowda. They made sure that all the spot mahajars (inspections) were promptly carried out and all necessary evidence such as the CCTV footage of the actor’s and other associates’ vehicle movements, mobile videos shot while assaulting Renukaswamy, including the clothes and shoes worn by Darshan and Pavithra Gowda were collected along with other evidence such as the electrical device used to torture the victim, his gold chain and wallet and the vehicle used for ferrying his body, have all been recovered and seized. The 20 lakh transaction trails to the fall guys are also a part of the evidence. As the cops are unable to get Renukaswamy’s and Raghavendra’s mobile phones, they have written to Meta requesting a retrieval of all messages and posts on Whatsapp and Instagram involving the accused and Renukaswamy and others.