Renukaswamy murder case: Actor Darshan Thoogudeepa tried to obstruct investigation, police tell court

On June 11, Thoogudeepa was arrested with his friend Gowda and 11 others in connection with the murder of Renukaswamy, a resident of Chitradurga. According to the police, Renukaswamy was murdered as he had allegedly sent abusive messages and photos to Gowda on Instagram. A total of 17 people have been arrested in the case so far.

According to the remand application, Thoogudeepa allegedly contacted many people before and after the alleged crime in a bid to interfere with the investigation. B Dayananda, Bengaluru Police Commissioner, however, had on Tuesday said that he was not pressured by anyone.

The police also informed the court that they recovered Rs 40 lakh from Thoogudeepa on June 19 – Rs 37.40 lakh from Thoogudeepa’s house and Rs 3 lakh from his wife. According to the police, one of the accused, Dhanaraj, said in his statement that an ‘electric shock torch’ was used to administer electric shocks to Renukaswamy. The device has been recovered by the police.

The other arrested accused, Gowda, Nagaraju R, Laxman M, Pawan K, Deepak Kumar M, Nandish, Nikhil Nayak, Raghavendra, Karthik, Keshava Murthy, Ravi, Jagadish alias Jagga and Anu Kumar, were moved to the Parappana Agrahara Central Prison Complex amid increased security.