Bengaluru: Granting conditional bail to actor Darshan, his girlfriend Pavithra Gowda and five others in the Renukaswamy murder case, the high court Friday raised doubts over the prosecution's contention that the accused conspired to kill the victim.
Justice S Vishwajith Shetty said though the prosecution has alleged that the accused had conspired to murder Renukaswamy and kidnapped him from Chitradurga and brought him to Bengaluru, none of the witnesses has spoken about the alleged conspiracy. Statements of two of the witnesses cited by the prosecution do not prima facie reveal such conspiracy by the suspects as alleged, he added.
"From the nature of weapons used by the accused persons, it cannot be said that they had prepared themselves to assault Renukaswamy and commit his murder. Therefore, whether the accused persons really had the intention to commit the murder of Renukaswamy would be a question that may have to be considered by the trial court," the judge said.
"Since Renukaswamy had voluntarily accompanied accused nos. 4 (Raghavendra), 6 (Jagadisha alias Jagga), 7 (Anu) and 8 (Ravi) to Bengaluru and on the way he informed his parents that he was with his friends and he would not be coming home to have lunch, and further on the way to Bengaluru, he along with the occupants of the car went to a bar and restaurant and purchased liquor, the question whether Renukaswamy was kidnapped or abducted for the purpose of committing his murder also arises for consideration, which needs to be thrashed out in the full-fledged trial before the trial court," the judge said.
The petitioners have been told not to directly or indirectly threaten or tamper with the prosecution witnesses, not involve themselves in similar offences in the future, and not leave the jurisdiction of the trial court without its permission until the case is disposed of.
The judge said they should execute a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh each with two sureties for the like sum, to the satisfaction of the jurisdictional court. They should appear regularly on all the dates of hearing before the trial court unless exempted for valid reasons.
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Update memo forms, govt told
In his order, Justice Shetty also issued a direction to the state govt with regard to the grounds of arrest. "In view of the law laid down by the Supreme Court in Pankaj Bansal's case and Prabir Purkayastha's case, service of the memo of grounds of arrest on the arrested accused immediately after their arrest is a mandatory requirement of law for all offences post-Oct 3, 2023, onwards, and therefore, there is an urgent need to update the arrest memo forms to ensure effective compliance," the judge said.
"The DGP, Karnataka, shall take necessary steps forthwith prescribing a uniform format for communicating grounds of arrest in writing to the person arrested, which shall include all basic facts of the case leading to the arrest, and the copy of such memo of grounds of arrest as communicated to the arrested person shall be enclosed along with the remand report when filed before the magistrate, seeking remand. The magistrates and judges in the district judiciary who exercise powers of remand shall record their satisfaction of compliance, or otherwise, of the requirement mandated under Section 50(1) of CrPC (corresponding provision under Section 47 of BNSS, 2023) and Article 22(1) of the Constitution of India, without fail," the judge observed in his order.