Karnataka: Court rejects actor Darshan’s plea for home food in prison

A Bengaluru court on Thursday (July 25) rejected a petition filed by Kannada actor Darshan Thoogudeepa, who is in judicial custody in connection with the Renukaswamy murder case, seeking a direction to the prison authorities to permit him to have access to home-cooked food in the jail. He had also sought cutlery, clothing, bedding, and books to be supplied by his family members.

The Karnataka High Court had earlier this month directed Darshan to approach the Magistrate court in this regard.

Darshan’s petition

In his petition, Darshan had also said that he had lost several kilograms of weight, as he was unable to eat and digest the food provided at the prison. It was also mentioned that the actor suffered from diarrhoea and the prison doctors diagnosed it to be a case of food poisoning.

According to the petitioner, Section 30 of the Karnataka Prisons Act, 1963, allows undertrial prisoners to receive these materials subject to examination and to such rules as may be approved by IGP (Prisons). Rejecting Darshan’s petition, the court, citing jail regulations, noted that facilities, as sought by the actor, cannot be extended to a murder accused.

The case

According to police sources, 33-year-old Renukaswamy, a fan of the actor, had sent obscene messages to Darshan’s close friend Pavithra Gowda, a co-accused in the case, which enraged the actor, allegedly leading to his murder. His body was found near a storm-water drain next to an apartment in Sumanahalli in Bengaluru 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, on the pretext that the actor wanted to meet him. It was in this shed that he was allegedly tortured and murdered on June 8.

Pavithra ‘major cause’

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

Police sources said Pavithra, who is accused number one, was the “major cause” for Renukaswamy’s murder, claiming that it has been proved from the probe that she instigated the other accused, conspired with them, and took part in the crime.

(With agency inputs)