Bengaluru court denies murder accused Darshan's request for home-cooked food in prison

The court stressed that the facilities as sought by the actor cannot be extended to a murder accused.

The magistrate court in Bengaluru rejected the plea of Kannada actor and murder accused Darshan, who is in prison, to provide him with home food. In his plea earlier, Darshan said that he had lost a few kilograms of weight as he is unable to eat the jail food.

Bengaluru court denies murder accused Darshan's request for home-cooked food in prison

According to reports, Darshan suffered from diarrhea, and doctors declared it as food poisoning. Section 30 of the Karnataka Prisons Act, 1963, allows undertrial prisoners to receive these materials subject to examination and to such rules as may be approved by IGP (Prisons).

However, the Karnataka High Court directed Darshan’s advocate to appeal it to the magistrate court. He requested cutlery, clothing, bedding, books to be supplied by his family members, and home-cooked food. The court stressed that the facilities as sought by the actor cannot be extended to a murder accused.

Actor Darshan was arrested on 11 June along with his close friend Pavitra Gowda for allegedly being involved in the murder of his fan. Renukaswamy, the victim, was killed in a shed used to park seized vehicles in south-western Bengaluru on 9 June, and his body was dumped in a stormwater drain 10km away, police have said. The motive for the crime, according to police, was that Renukaswamy, who lived in Chitradurga, 200km from Bengaluru, trolled Gowda on social media platforms, enraging her and Darshan.

During the investigation, police also recovered several objects that were used to torture the victim, including wooden logs, a leather belt, and a rope.