Renukaswamy murder: Fresh photos reveal horrors endured by victim

Bengaluru: A day after the Bengaluru police filed the chargesheet in Renukaswamy’s murder, fresh photographs emerged on Thursday allegedly detailing the moments before the victim’s death.

While one of the photographs showed a semi-nude distressed Renukaswamy, another photo was of his dead body purportedly at the shed in Pattenagere, where the police said he was tortured to death.

The photographs are a grim reminder of the brutalities inflicted on Renukaswamy, even as he continued to beg for mercy.

As per the chargesheet, he was beaten using wooden sticks and planks, tied with a rope and at times administered electric shocks. He was assaulted by some of the accused, including actor Darshan Thoogudeepa (accused 2) and his friend Pavithra Gowda (accused 1), as per the chargesheet.

Photographs from the crime scene showed a broken wooden lathi, a rope and wooden sticks used to assault Renukaswamy. Police have also recovered what they called an “electric shock torch”, which has a tasing feature.

This was allegedly procured online by Dhanraj D, one of the accused, who used it to tase Renukaswamy.

A few other close-up shots detailed the injuries sustained by Renukaswmy: multiple thick bruises on the upper back, mangled scrotum, and marks on the arm and chest, inflicted after tasing.

Another photograph showing accused Darshan, Nagaraju and Pradosh at the Stonny Brook restobar in RR Nagar during a police mahazar also went viral. Police had found that some of the accused, including Darshan, were at the restobar before Renukaswamy’s murder.

The veracity of the photographs could not independently be verified.

The police have named Darshan, 47; Pavithra, 33; Pawan K, 29; Raghavendra, 43; Nandish, 28; Jagadish, 36; Anukumar, 25; Ravi Shankar, 32; Dhanraj D, 27; Vinay V, 38; Nagaraju, 41; Laxman, 54; Deepak, 39; Pradosh, 40; Karthik, 27; Keshavamurthy, 27; and Nikhil Nayak, 21, as the accused in Renukaswamy’s murder.

The key charges invoked were that of murder (IPC 302), criminal conspiracy (IPC 120B), kidnapping or abducting to murder (IPC 364) and disappearance of evidence (IPC 201).

Police investigation revealed that Renukaswamy had sent objectionable messages to Pavithra on Instagram. Her instigation led to Darshan conspiring with other accused in bringing Renukaswamy to Bengaluru and murdering him, as per the chargesheet.