Supreme Court's "Discretion" Remark After High Court Bail For Actor Darshan

Expressing its displeasure, the Supreme Court on Thursday said it felt the Karnataka High Court did not "exercise its discretion properly" while granting bail to actor Darshan Thoogudeepa in the case involving the murder of his fan Renukaswamy.

The 33-year-old was allegedly abducted by Darshan and his aides from Chitradurga and then tortured in a shed in Bengaluru in June last year over obscene messages sent to Darshan's alleged partner, actor Pavithra Gowda. After Renukaswamy died, his body was thrown into a drain. 

In December, the Karnataka High Court granted bail to Darshan. Hearing a petition by the Karnataka government against the decision, a bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan turned to the actor's counsel, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, and asked, "What do you have to say, Mr Sibal? Honestly, we don't think the high court has exercised its discretion properly. You must have seen the manner in which the high court has dictated the order."

Mr Sibal responded that the Supreme Court could keep the high court's decision aside and focus on the statements made by the witnesses. 

The bench then set the matter for hearing on Tuesday and said Mr Sibal should be ready to tell the court why it should not interfere in the high court's decision. 

"I wanted to show you something...I seem to have missed my marking.... We will hear you on Tuesday. You keep your submissions ready. We'll hear you on why we should not interfere," the bench said. 

Senior Advocate Siddharth Luthra claimed that the actor was sitting on the stage with one of the prosecution's key witnesses. Mr Sibal, however, shot back and said that the person was not a key witness.