A Bengaluru court on Saturday extended the police custody of Kannada actor Darshan Thoogudeepa, his friend Pavithra Gowda and eleven others, who were arrested in a murder case, by five days.
With the court order, the accused will continue in police custody till June 20.
They were produced before the 21st Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) court on Saturday as their custody was to end on Sunday. The court would be shut on Sundays and Monday (Bakrid).
During the hearing, the advocates of Darshan and others requested the court to send them to judicial custody. However, the probe team argued that crucial evidence and equipment used to torture the deceased needs to be recovered and hence an extension of the police custody is required.
Drashan, popularly known as the ‘Challenging Star’, and 12 others were arrested in connection with the murder of Renukaswamy, a fan of the actor.
Renukaswamy, hailing from Chitradurga, was found dead near a stormwater drain next to an apartment in Sumanahalli on June 9. Media reports suggest that the victim had been posting inappropriate social media messages against actor Pavithra Gowda, who is known to be close to Darshan.
Darshan was arrested from his farmhouse on June 11 after police recovered CCTV footage to establish that the actor was present during the alleged assault on Renukaswamy, leading to his death
According to reports, one of the accused, Raghavendra, who is part of Darshan's fan club in Chitradurga, had brought Renukaswamy to a shed in R.R. Nagar, on the pretext that Darshan wanted to meet him. It was in this shed that he was allegedly tortured and killed.