Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court has restrained media outlets from broadcasting, printing, or publishing any information from the charge sheet filed recently against Kannada actor Darshan Thoogudeepa and others in the Renukaswamy murder case until the next hearing.
Darshan sought to restrain media from publishing details from recently-filed charge sheet
Justice Hemant Chandangoudar passed an ex-parte interim order on a plea by the actor seeking to restrain media outlets from broadcasting, printing or publishing any details from the recently-filed charge sheet in the Renukaswamy murder case.
Darshan, Pavithra, 15 others are accused in Renukaswamy murder case
Darshan, his friend Pavithra Gowda and 15 others are accused in the Renukaswamy murder case and are currently lodged in judicial custody in different prisons of the state. A city court on Monday extended their judicial custody till September 12.
Police last week filed a 3,991-page preliminary charge sheet in the Renukaswamy murder case
The Bengaluru Police last last week filed a 3,991-page preliminary charge sheet before a city court in the Renukaswamy murder case. As per the police, the charge sheet in the case has been filed on the basis of the eye-witnesses account, circumstantial, technical, scientific and other evidence collected by the investigating officers during the investigation of the case.
High Court instructed Union of India to notify order to media houses
The High Court noted that despite an order earlier passed by a lower court on a plea by actor’s wife, the media outlets continued to share confidential details and ordered media outlets, identified as respondent nos 3 to 40, to refrain from publishing any details from the charge sheet in the case until the next hearing and instructed the Union of India to notify this order to the media houses, news agency PTI reported.
The High Court, while issuing the ex-parte interim order, referred to a 2010 Supreme Court judgment in “Sidhartha Vashisht @ Manu Sharma vs State (NCT of Delhi)”, Clause 5 of the Cable Television Networks Regulation Act, 1995 and an earlier judgment from a coordinate bench of the Karnataka High Court.
Renukaswamy, who is said to be a fan of film star Darshan, allegedly made derogatory comments against Pavithra, a friend of Darshan and accused number 1 in the case, on social media, which allegedly enraged Darshan and allegedly led to his murder.