Union home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday said the Congress government in Karnataka is answerable for the delay in acting against complaints of alleged sexual misconduct against Janada Dal Secular lawmaker, Prajwal Revanna.
Addressing media persons in Assam’s Guwahati, Shah said, “BJP’s stand is clear… we stand with the ‘Matri Shakti’ (women power) of the country. I want to ask the Congress, whose government is there? The government is of Congress Party. Why have they not taken any action till now?”.
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The BJP is an ally of the JDS and has been criticised for not prevailing on the ally to replace Revanna from the Hasan Lok Sabha constituency.
“We do not have to take action on this as this is a law-and-order issue of the state, state government has to take action on it… We are in favor of the investigation and our partner JD(S) has also announced to take action against it,” Shah said.
Shah added that a meeting of the JDS core committee on Tuesday will decide the party’s action against Revanna.
BJP leaders said Devaraje Gowda, a leader of the party from Hassan district, had warned the state leadership about allegations that Revanna was sexually abusing women months before his name was announced as the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate for Hassan.
Devaraje Gowda wrote a letter asking state party chief BY Vijayendra to bring this information to the attention of national leaders.
A series of obscene videos purportedly involving Revanna, who left the country even as a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was formed to probe into the allegations. Some of the videos appeared to depict sexual assault. Revanna claimed the videos were fake and intended to defame him. He sought a court injunction last year against the airing of videos.
A first information report alleging sexual harassment was lodged on Sunday against Revanna and HD Revanna, who is an assembly member, on the complaint of a woman who worked at their home. The woman alleged she was sexually abused multiple times between 2019 and 2022.
In her complaint, the woman claimed HD Revanna and Prajwal Revanna used to sexually assault women workers in their homes. Based on the complaint, police registered a case under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 354A (sexual harassment), 354D (stalking), 506 (criminal intimidation), and 509 (outraging modesty of a woman).
