Karnataka BJP president Vijayendra Yediyurappa on Wednesday refuted party colleague Devaraje Gowda’s claim that the latter had written to him last year, about Prajwal Revanna’s purported sex videos. The Shikaripura MLA called Gowda’s allegation “patently false” and denied having any prior knowledge of the explicit content.
“Lawyer Devaraje Gowda’s claim of sending me a letter on the videos is patently false. No such letter has reached me nor did I have any knowledge of the videos,” Yediyurappa wrote on X.
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Vijayendra Yediyurappa alleged that Congress leader and deputy chief minister, DK Shivakumar knew about the sexually explicit videos in advance. He said the Congress leader waited for the Lok Sabha elections to circulate the videos.
The BJP leader asked why the Congress waited for the elections to launch a probe against Prajwal Revanna.
Hundreds of such videos were in circulation in Hassan, JD(S) MP Prajwal Revanna‘s constituency.
Revanna, who is accused of sexually abusing numerous women, has left the country after the videos surfaced.
“Deputy chief minister DK Shiva Kumar has admitted to knowing about the videos for months but waited to get closer to the elections to make them public. If he had known about the videos, why didn’t the Congress government order investigations immediately? Why wait till the elections?” Yediyurappa said.
Referring to the protest against Revanna, he said the Congress government had the power to investigate and take action. “Why this drama?” he added.
Devaraje Gowda said he had warned the BJP chief about the videos but the latter didn’t receive the letter. On Tuesday, he attributed Revanna’s candidature from Hassan despite the videos to a communication gap.
“I wrote a letter to our president (Karnataka BJP President Vijayendra Yediyurappa) about the video and gave it to the office, but as he said, the letter had not reached him either… I wrote in the letter that there is no problem in allying with JD(S) but there are serious allegations on him (Prajwal Revanna) of sexual harassment… Karthik, the driver of Prajwal Revanna came to me and said that he was being harassed. He (Karthik) said that he (Prajwal Revanna) has several obscene videos… I asked the driver if he had given this video to anyone… Karthik said that he had given the obscene videos to the Congress president,” he told ANI.
He later said that he had written the letter with the thought that the videos could cause problems.
“This is a communication gap and he got the ticket… Also, it was not the mistake of the BJP as they (JD(S) despite having the intelligence report gave him the ticket,” he added.
Prajwal Revanna, the grandson of HD Deve Gowda, has been suspended by the JD(S).
The Karnataka police have booked Revannan for sexually assaulting his former housekeeper.
A special investigation team is probing the case.
