Actor Darshan gets bail in murder case on medical grounds, released from Ballari prison
Ballari, Oct 30: Actor Darshan Thoogudeepa, arrested more than four months ago in a murder case, walked out of jail here on Wednesday, hours after the Karnataka High Court granted him interim bail on medical grounds, to undergo spine surgery.
The 47-year-old, arrested on June 11, was lodged in Ballari prison. His friend Pavithra Gowda and 15 others are co-accused in the Renukaswamy murder case.
The bench of Justice S Vishwajith Shetty on Wednesday morning granted interim bail to Darshan for a period of six weeks. And he was released from prison this evening after jail authorities completed formalities on receiving the court order.
According to police sources, Darshan will take a route via neighbouring Andhra Pradesh to reach Bengaluru, and security is being provided to him.
The court has laid down certain conditions, as per which he should execute a personal bond for a sum of Rs two lakhs with two sureties for the like sum, and surrender his Passport before the Trial Court.
ALSO READ: We are confident guilty will be punished, says Renukaswamy's family after HC grants bail to Darshan
It has also said that he is "at liberty to get himself operated and treated in a Hospital of his choice at Bengaluru and he shall report to the said Hospital forthwith after his release and get himself medically examined and a report from the said Hospital mentioning the probable date of petitioner's surgery, period of admission of petitioner in the Hospital for the proposed treatment and follow-up treatment if any, shall be filed before this Court within one week from the date of release."
Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar said the government "respectfully welcomes" the decision of the High Court granting interim bail to actor Darshan.
"I will not question the verdict of the court. The government will respectfully welcome the decision of the court," he told reporters here in response to a question.
Family of Renukaswamy, who was allegedly killed by Darshan and others, declined to comment on the Court granting him interim bail, but expressed confidence that the guilty will be punished as they have faith in the judiciary and police.
"Bail has been granted under the legal system, we cannot comment on it. We have faith that the guilty will be punished. We have faith in law and the police. (Darshan's) treatment is a matter for the Doctor, him and the court, we don't want to comment on it," Renukaswamy's father Kashinath Shivanagoudar told reporters in Davangere.
"We don't have anything to say other than that the guilty should be punished. We have faith in law and judiciary, so we are confident that the guilty will be punished," he added.
Sahana, wife of Renukaswamy, had given birth to a baby boy on October 16. She was five months pregnant when her husband was killed.
Darshan's fans burst into celebration in various parts of Karnataka, after news broke that he has secured interim bail.
Darshan’s wife Vijayalakshmi performed a special prayer at Durgamma Temple in the district headquarters town of Ballari, where her husband is lodged in a prison.
Waving Darshan's posters, hundreds of his fans distributed sweets and burst crackers in several areas of Ballari and Bengaluru, among others.
Among the other conditions imposed on Darshan while granting interim bail include: he shall not directly or indirectly threaten or tamper with the prosecution witnesses, also he has been asked to refrain himself from appearing before print, (electronic) media or any social media to give any statement on any issue including his health condition, during the interim bail.
Further asking Darshan to surrender before the Committal Court/Trial Court immediately after expiry of the period of interim bail granted to him which would be however subject to further order of this Court, the HC said he shall not leave the jurisdiction of the Trial Court during the period of interim bail.
The court had reserved the order on Tuesday on the bail application after hearing detailed arguments from the actor’s legal representative, senior advocate C V Nagesh, and State Public Prosecutor P Prasanna Kumar.
The State had presented medical reports in a sealed cover from doctors at Ballari central prison, and the Head of the Department of Neurology at a government hospital in Ballari.
According to police, 33-year-old Renukaswamy, a fan of the actor, had sent obscene messages to Pavithra, which enraged Darshan, allegedly leading to his murder. His body was found near a storm water drain next to an apartment in Sumanahalli here on June nine.
Raghavendra, one of the accused who is part of Darshan's fan club in Chitradurga, had brought Renukaswamy to a shed in R R Nagar here, on the pretext that the actor wanted to meet him. It was in this shed that he was allegedly tortured and murdered.
According to the post-mortem report, Renukaswamy, a native of Chitradurga, died due to shock and hemorrhage as a result of multiple blunt injuries.
Police have said Pavithra, who is accused number one, was the "major cause" for Renukaswamy’s murder, claiming that it has been proved from the probe that she instigated other accused, conspired with them, and took part in the crime.
First Visuals of
— Muhammad Wajihulla (@wajihulla) October 30, 2024
Murder accused & Actor @dasadarshan as he steps out of Jail after 131 days..
Darshan is A2 for the murder of Renukaswamy.
Darshan is out on Interim bail on medical grounds for 6 weeks. He is on his way to Bengaluru from Bellary. #DBoss #DarshanBail pic.twitter.com/WWu8CT35Ik
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Israeli strikes in northern Gaza kill 88, officials say
Deir Al-Balah (Gaza Strip), Oct 30: Two Israeli airstrikes in the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday killed at least 88 people, including dozens of women and children, health officials said, and the director of a hospital said life-threatening injuries were going untreated because a weekend raid by Israeli forces led to the detention of dozens of medics.
Israel has escalated airstrikes and waged a bigger ground operation in northern Gaza in recent weeks, saying it is focused on rooting out Hamas group who have regrouped after more than a year of war. The intense fighting is raising alarm about the worsening humanitarian conditions for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians still in northern Gaza.
Concerns about not enough aid reaching Gaza were amplified Monday when Israeli lawmakers passed two laws to cut ties with the main U.N. agency distributing food, water and medicine, and to ban it from Israeli soil. Israel controls access to both Gaza and the occupied West Bank, and it was unclear how the agency known as UNRWA would continue its work in either place.
“The humanitarian operation in Gaza, if that is unraveled, that is a disaster within a series of disasters and just doesn't bear thinking about," said UNRWA spokesperson John Fowler. He said other U.N. agencies and international organizations distributing aid in Gaza rely on its logistics and thousands of workers.
In Lebanon, the Hezbollah group said Tuesday it has chosen Sheikh Naim Kassem to succeed longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike last month. Hezbollah, which has fired rockets into Israel since the start of the war in Gaza, vowed to continue with Nasrallah's policies “until victory is achieved.”
A short while later, eight Austrian soldiers serving in the U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon were reported lightly injured in a midday missile strike.
The peacekeeping force, known as UNIFIL, said the rocket that struck its headquarters in Lebanon was “likely” fired by Hezbollah, and that it struck a vehicle workshop.
Strike in northern Gaza comes as Israel wages a major operation thereThe Gaza Health Ministry's emergency service said at least 70 people were killed and 23 were missing in the first of Tuesday's strikes in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya. More than half of the victims were women and children, the ministry said. A mother and her five children — some of them adults — and a second mother with six children, were among those killed in the attack on a five-story building, according to the emergency service.
A second strike on Beit Lahiya on Tuesday evening killed at least 18 people, according to the Health Ministry.
The nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital was overwhelmed by a wave of wounded women and children, including many who needed urgent surgeries, according to its director, Dr. Hossam Abu Safiya. The Israeli military raided the hospital over the weekend, detaining dozens of medics it said were Hamas members.
“The situation is catastrophic in every sense of the word," Safiya said, adding that the only remaining doctor at the hospital was a pediatrician. "The health care system has collapsed and needs an urgent international intervention.”
U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller referred to the “horrifying incident” in Beit Lahiya in comments to reporters. He said Israel's yearlong campaign against Hamas has ensured it cannot repeat the type of attack that started the war in Gaza, but that “getting to here came at a great cost to civilians.”
The Israeli military said it was investigating the first Beit Lahiya strike; it did not immediately comment on the second.
Israel's recent operations in northern Gaza, focused in and around the Jabaliya refugee camp, have killed hundreds of people and driven tens of thousands from their homes.
The Israeli military has repeatedly struck shelters for displaced people in recent months. It says it carries out precise strikes targeting Palestinian group and tries to avoid harming civilians, but the strikes often kill women and children.
On Tuesday, Israel said four more of its soldiers were killed in the fighting in northern Gaza, bringing the toll since the start of the operation to 16, including a colonel.
As the fighting raged, Hamas signaled it was ready to resume cease-fire negotiations, although its key demands — a permanent cease-fire and full withdrawal of the Israeli military — do not appear to have changed, and have been dismissed in the past by Israel. Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said on Tuesday the group has accepted mediators' request to discuss “new proposals.”
Hezbollah's new leader has vowed to keep fighting IsraelHezbollah said in a statement that its decision-making Shura Council elected Kassem, who had been Nasrallah's deputy leader for over three decades, as the new secretary-general.
Kassem, 71, a founding member of the group established following Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, had been serving as acting leader. He has given several televised speeches vowing that Hezbollah will fight on despite a string of setbacks.
Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel, drawing retaliation, after Hamas' surprise attack out of Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023. Iran, which backs both groups, has also directly traded fire with Israel, in April and then again this month.
The tensions with Hezbollah boiled over in September, as Israel unleashed a wave of heavy airstrikes and killed Nasrallah and most of his senior commanders. Israel launched a ground invasion into Lebanon at the start of October.
Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel on Tuesday, killing one person in the northern city of Maalot-Tarshiha, authorities said. Israeli strikes in the coastal city of Sidon killed at least five people, the Lebanese Health Ministry said.
Israeli laws targeting UN agency could further restrict aidUNRWA and other international groups continued to express outrage Tuesday about the Israeli parliament's decision to cut ties to the agency.
Israel says UNRWA has been infiltrated by Hamas and that the group siphons off aid and uses U.N. facilities to shield its activities, allegations denied by the U.N. agency.
Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer vowed that aid will continue to reach Gaza, as Israel plans to coordinate with aid organizations or other bodies within the U.N. “Ultimately, we will ensure that a more efficient replacement for UNRWA takes its role, not one which is infiltrated by the terrorist organization,” he said.
Multiple U.N. agencies rallied Tuesday around UNRWA, calling it the “backbone” of the world body's aid activities in Gaza and other Palestinian areas. UNRWA provides education, health care and emergency aid to millions of Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation and their descendants. Refugee families make up the majority of Gaza's population.
Israel has sharply restricted aid to northern Gaza this month, prompting a warning from the United States that failure to facilitate greater humanitarian assistance could lead to a reduction in military aid.
In its attack on Israel last year, Hamas killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took around 250 as hostages. Some 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed over 43,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities. Around 90% of the population of 2.3 million have been displaced from their homes, often multiple times.
