Four fall guys, who claimed to have murdered 33-year-old S. Renuka Swamy over a “financial dispute”, were allegedly offered Rs. 20 lakh to conceal the alleged role of Kannada film actor Darshan in the crime, police claimed.
Swamy, a drug store employee who had allegedly posted an offensive comment against Darshan’s girlfriend, Pavithra Gowda, was on June 8 taken in a van from Chitradurga to Bangalore where he was allegedly tortured to death. The cover-up began after his body was discovered on June 9.
The four fall guys — Raghavendra, Karthik, Nikhil Nayak and Keshavmurthy — appeared before the Bangalore police on June 10, owning up the crime. During interrogation, they confessed to having been roped in by Darshan’s friend, Deepak, to claim the crime. They were instructed to not take Darshan’s name anywhere.
According to sources, Darshan had allegedly paid Rs. 30 lakh to his aides to find fall guys before the police reached him. Based on the statement of the four, the remaining accused, including Darshan and Pavithra Gowda, were detained.