The bail of Kannada film actor-producer Darshan and other accused in the murder case of fan Renukaswamy was cancelled by the Supreme Court on August 14. Darshan was arrested after the cancellation of the bail. His girlfriend, actress Pavithra Gowda’s bail was also cancelled, and she was arrested just before Darshan was. The apex court said that Darshan and other accused must not get any special treatment in jail.
“Article 14 guarantees equality before law and prohibits arbitrariness. It mandates that all persons regardless of their popularity or privilege are equally subject to law,” the SC said in the order, setting aside the bail granted to the accused by the Karnataka high court in December 2024.
A fan of Darshan, 33-year-old Renukaswamy, allegedly sent obscene messages to Pavithra Gowda, girlfriend of Darshan, in 2024. In his messages, Renukaswamy allegedly expressed anger at Pavithra whom he held responsible for discord in Darshan’s marriage at the time.
While ruling that the trial be expedited, the apex court bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan pulled up the Karnataka high court for having granted Darshan and others bail in December last year. It warned the state against any privileges in jail, saying, “However big a person may be, he cannot be above the law.” It added, “The day we know that the accused are provided with special or 5-star jail facilities, the first thing will be to put the jail superintendent under suspension.” The bench underlined that granting bail in such a serious case, without adequately considering its gravity, and the interference with the trial was an unwarranted exercise of discretion by the HC. “The order fails to record any special or cogent reasons… Instead, it reflects a mechanical exercise of discretion formed by significant omission of legally relevant facts,” the SC bench explained. It also added, “As this Court held, influence, resources, and social status cannot form a basis for granting bail where there is a genuine risk of prejudice to the investigation or trial… Notably, celebrities serve as social role models — accountability is greater, not lesser. They, by virtue of their fame and public presence, wield substantial influence on public behaviour and social values. Granting leniency to such persons despite grave charges of conspiracy and murder, sends the wrong message to society and undermines public confidence in the justice system.”
The Supreme Court also said, evidence in the case indicated a pre-meditated and orchestrated crime, where the accused not only allegedly took the law into his own hands but also engaged in systematic destruction of crucial evidence, including deletion of CCTV footage, payment of bribe to make co-accused surrender falsely, and use of police and local influence to derail the investigation. It added that the actor’s antecedents, influence, jail misconduct, and the seriousness of the charges against him make him unfit for bail, and that the order granting him bail was based on non-application of mind, perverse, and hence deemed to be legally unsustainable.
The cancellation of the bail came on an appeal filed by the state government in January this year against the Karnataka high court order.
