HC grants bail to Darshan, Pavithra and five others

Bengaluru: The Karnataka high court Friday granted conditional bail to actor Darshan, his girlfriend Pavithra Gowda and five others, who have been arraigned as accused in the Renukaswamy murder case.
Pointing out that the accused-petitioners do not have serious criminal antecedents and have deep roots in society, Justice S Vishwajith Shetty said, "They are in custody for the past six months, and the prosecution, in all, has cited 262 chargesheet witnesses and 587 documents in 13 volumes along with the chargesheet. Therefore, chances of the trial being completed in the near future are very remote.
"If the aforesaid factors are appreciated in the background of the judgments referred and the brief analysis of the material on record, I am of the opinion that the petitioners' prayer for the grant of regular bail requires to be answered affirmatively on the merits of the case."
The five others granted bail are R Nagaraju, Anu Kumar alias Anu, Lakshman M, Jagadeesh alias Jagga, and Pradoosh S Rao. Darshan was granted interim bail on Oct 30 on medical grounds for a six-week period.
The judge also said that non-furnishing of grounds of arrest to the accused immediately after their arrest is also one of the reasons for granting the bail.
Wondering why there was a an inordinate delay in recording the statement of witnesses, including a prime eyewitness, the judge said the witnesses, during their statement, have not stated anything about them being present at the time of arrest of the accused persons, or about them signing the memo of grounds of arrest giving rise to doubts with regard to the contention put forward by the prosecution that the memo of grounds of arrest was served on the accused.
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