Bengaluru: On 10 June, three men walked into the Kamakshipalya police station and admitted to the murder of a 33-year-old pharmacy employee. Bewildered at first, police swung into action to verify the claims which ultimately led them to Kannada actor Darshan Thoogudeepa.
Further investigation led police to suspect that the victim, Renukaswamy, was murdered allegedly by Darshan and his aides for sending ‘lewd messages’ to the actor’s rumoured partner, Pavithra Gowda, on social media platform Instagram. Police believe that both the victim and the accused were fans of Darshan, or ‘D-Boss’ as he is popularly known.
On Sunday, police spent nearly 12 hours in Chitradurga trying to recover clothes, jewellery and mobile phones from the homes of four key suspects — Raghavendra, Jaggu, Annu and Ravi — who allegedly tracked down and brought Renukaswamy to Bengaluru.
According to sources, police teams arrived in Chitradurga late Saturday night and initiated the recovery process around 11 am Sunday at four locations — Thamatakal, Iyyanahalli Kurubarahatti, Azad Nagar and Sihi Neeru Honda. The recovery exercise lasted the entire day under the gaze of prying media cameras and locals.
“The police had come to recover a gold chain, ring, some silver jewellery, and a watch worn by Renukaswamy,” said one resident of Chitradurga, requesting anonymity.
The police, it is learnt, were also trying to recover Rs 10 lakh allegedly paid by Darshan to one of the accused, Raghavendra, who is also president of the Chitradurga chapter of a fan club of the actor.
Investigators suspect that Renukaswamy was murdered allegedly by Darshan and his aides in Bengaluru on the night of 8 June. His body was discovered in the early hours of the following morning under the limits of the Kamakshipalya police station.
Pavithra Gowda is the main accused in the case, while Darshan is a co-accused, along with at least 15 others including Puttaswamy, Raghavendra, Nandish, Jagadish, Annu, Ravi, Raju, Vinay, Nagaraju, Lakshman, Deepak, Pradosh, Karthik, Keshavamurthy and Nikhil.
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‘Hunting down’ Instagram user
According to police sources, Darshan was made aware sometime in January this year by his aide Vinay about Pavithra Gowda receiving lewd messages. Though screenshots of such messages are doing the rounds online, ThePrint could not independently verify if the Instagram handle in question was indeed the one used by Renukaswamy.
Senior police officers probing the case said Gowda had received messages taunting her for managing to “lure” actors like Darshan. Besides, she also allegedly received obscene pictures from the same Instagram handle.
This is when, police suspect, Darshan’s aides tried to identify the Instagram user in question by creating a fake account and found success. They established contact with the Instagram user and spoke to him for a few weeks while pretending to be Pavithra Gowda.
They were then able to convince the Instagram user to talk on voice call. This is when they are likely to have ascertained Renukaswamy’s identity and traced him to Chitradurga.
Police suspect Darshan then reached out to Raghavendra, asking him to track Renukaswamy’s movements. For this, Raghavendra sought the help of Jagadish (Jaggu), an autorickshaw driver.
Visuals emerged Sunday of Renukaswamy’s alleged abduction, showing him being followed by members of ‘Darshan’s gang’ in Chitradurga on 8 June, before being waylaid near Balaji Bar. Sources said that after being waylaid, Renukaswamy was told that he owed money to someone who was waiting for him near Kunchiganahal petrol bunk. Instead, he was taken to Bengaluru in a cab driven by one Ravi whose wife later claimed her husband returned home that day with Rs 4,000 as fare but “did not have anything to do with the murder”.
“They (Darshan’s aides) picked him (Renukaswamy) from Chitradurga and brought him to Bengaluru and assaulted him very badly. Darshan and Pavithra Gowda were also there,” said a senior police officer, requesting anonymity.
Accused Raghavendra had also invited two others, Annu and Raju, to accompany them to Bengaluru and even assured them of a picture with Darshan, it is learnt.
What happened in Bengaluru
Upon their arrival in Bengaluru, Renukaswamy and the accused, including the autorickshaw driver, went straight to a vehicle shed in Rajarajeshwari Nagar.
According to Mohan, an associate of the cab driver Ravi, there were around 30 people there waiting to beat up Renukaswamy but most of them left after looking at his lanky physique.
Mohan also told Kannada TV news channels Sunday that only Raghavendra and Renukaswamy went inside the shed while Annu, Ravi and Raju waited outside. Soon after, Darshan and Gowda arrived. There are allegations that as the two arrived, it was Gowda who hit Renukaswamy first with her slipper and then others followed.
The police remand note suggests Renukaswamy was then assaulted with sticks, rods, ropes and other objects. It adds that about an hour later, Raghavendra came out and informed Ravi that Renukaswamy was dead and conveyed an offer of Rs 5 lakh allegedly from Darshan to help dispose of the body. According to police, a different car — other than the one that brought them to Bengaluru — was used to dispose of the body near Sumanahalli.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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