Bengaluru, Jun 14 (IANS): The Karnataka Police on Friday made two more arrests in connection with the murder of a man in which popular Kannada actor Darshan and his co-star and partner Pavithra Gowda are the prime accused, taking the total number of arrests made in the case so far to 16 with another accused still at large.
Earlier this week, Darshan, Pavithra Gowda, and 11 others were arrested on charges of murdering 33-year-old Renukaswamy, a resident of Chitradurga.
The probe revealed that Renukaswamy was a big fan of Darshan and had sent derogatory messages to Pavithra Gowda on social media. The victim was allegedly kidnapped, brought to Bengaluru, kept in a shed, and brutally tortured to death.
The sixth accused, Jagadish aka Jagga, and the seventh accused, Anu aka Anukumar, were arrested on Friday from Chitradurga by a team led by DSP Dinakar and a special team from the Kamakshipalya police station investigating the case.
The accused, who were reportedly involved in kidnapping Renukaswamy from Chitradurga, are being brought to Bengaluru for interrogation.
The eighth accused, Ravi aka Ravishankar, who drove the Toyota Etios in which Renukaswamy was brought to Bengaluru from Chitradurga, surrendered before the police on Thursday night.
Police sources said the third accused, Pavan aka Puttaswamy, spoke to Renukaswamy over the phone, while the fourth accused, Raghavendra, asked him to come to a spot on the outskirts of Chitradurga city.
Raghavendra, the head of a Darshan fan club in Chitradurga, who had been tracking Renukaswamy for the past week, forcefully put him into the Toyota Etios car, police sources said.
The accused reportedly told the victim that Darshan knew about the derogatory messages he had sent to Pavithra, adding that he would be allowed to click a photo with the popular actor if he tendered an apology.
However, after dumping him in a shed in Bengaluru, the accused persons brutally tortured him. They even fed him non-vegetarian biryani although Renukaswamy was a vegetarian.
They also taunted Renukaswamy that 'D Boss' (Darshan) was going to come and thrash him, so he better be prepared and eat non-veg food given his frail physique, police sources said.