New Darshan Case Shocker: Actor Pavithra Gowda Watched Torture, Say Cops

Even as chilling details of the horrific murder of a man by actor Darshan Thoogudeepa and his aides continue to tumble out, it has now emerged that actor Pavithra Gowda was present at the scene when the man was being tortured, sources said. 

The victim, 33-year-old Renuka Swamy, was brutally murdered because he had posted obscene messages on social media about Ms Gowda, who is Mr Thoogudeepa's close friend.

On June 8, Swamy was kidnapped from his hometown Chitradurga by some of the other accused in the case and taken to a shed in Bengaluru, 200 km away, where they were joined by the two actors, the sources said. They said Ms Gowda was present in the shed for at least some time while Swamy was beaten up with sticks and given multiple electric shocks. 

According to news agency PTI, it was Ms Gowda who instigated Mr Thoogudeepa to punish Swamy for the posts made by him. 

The autopsy report says Swamy died due to "shock haemorrhage as a result of multiple blunt injuries". Reports have said his testicles were ruptured and one of his ears were missing. 

The police have arrested 17 people in the case, including the two actors. Sources have said Mr Thoogudeepa may have paid as much as Rs 50 lakh to his aides for their role in the crime. 

Of this, Rs 30 lakh was paid to a man called Pradosh alias Pawan, who oversaw the kidnapping, murder and disposal of the body. Rs 5 lakh was also supposed to be paid to the families of two men, Raghavendra and Karthik, so that they could give false confessions and go to prison in place of the actors and the others involved in the murder. The body was dumped in a drain. 

In accordance with the plan, some of the accused took the fall for the murder and confessed but eventually revealed the actors' names under sustained questioning. 

Police have recovered CCTV footage as well as the footwear that Mr Thoogudeepa and Ms Gowda were wearing on the day of the murder. Ms Gowda is in judicial custody while Mr Thoogudeepa's police custody was extended by two days on Thursday.