A special investigation team (SIT) arrested Janata Dal (Secular) MLA HD Revanna in connection with a sexual assault and kidnapping case, officials said on Saturday, in a development that came soon after a special court rejected his anticipatory bail plea.
The SIT, constituted to probe the allegations of sexual abuse against the Holenarasipur MLA and his son Prajwal Revanna, on Saturday also rescued the abducted woman from the farmhouse of Revanna’s personal assistant in Mysuru, the officials said.
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Revanna, former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda’s son, was taken into custody at around 6.45pm from the JD(S) supremo’s Padmanabhanagar residence in Bengaluru, a senior SIT official said. “Initially, he didn’t respond to the calls, and when the team decided to enter the house to arrest him, he came out, surrendering to the police,” the official said.
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The arrest capped nearly a week of controversy that erupted after pen drives with purported videos of Prajwal Revanna sexually assaulting multiple women came to the fore days before the constituency of Hassan, a family borough of the JD(S), went to the polls in the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections on April 26. Prajwal Revanna is the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate for the seat.
Karnataka government officials said that a pen drive circulated in Hassan had 2,976 videos, some of a few seconds, and some that last a few minutes. Preliminary investigations suggested that most were shot from a mobile phone at Revanna’s residences in Bengaluru and Hassan after 2019.
The arrest on Saturday came in a case registered against Revanna and his associate Sathish Babanna in Mysuru on Thursday night for allegedly abducting a woman, reportedly in her 60s. The FIR was filed on a complaint filed by the woman’s son after she went missing on April 28. The complainant alleged that Babanna, acting under directives from Revanna, abducted his mother.
Babanna has already been arrested in connection with the case.
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According to the complaint, one of the thousands of videos shows the woman pleading with Prajwal to spare her.
Prajwal is ostensibly in Germany on a diplomatic passport after allegations of sexual abuse came to light.
Revanna was charged under sections 364(a) (kidnapping for ransom, etc), 365 (kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person) and 34 (the acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.
More than five days after her alleged kidnapping, the woman was found at a farmhouse in Kalenahalli village in Mysuru, a second SIT official said. The house belongs to Rajashekar, the personal assistant of Revanna.
“The woman will be brought to Bengaluru, where her statement will be recorded,” the officer said.
Seeking anticipatory bail in the case, Revanna approached the Special Court for Elected Representatives, which on Saturday dismissed his application. Revanna’s advocates promised the court that he would attend interrogation by the SIT if the bail plea was granted. However, objections were raised by the SIT public prosecutor to his bail application.
Judge Santosh Gajanana Bhat of the Special Court of Inquiry of Criminal Cases against Legislators-Members of Parliament issued the order rejecting the bail application at 6.23pm, and posted the matter for May 6.
The SIT is probing allegations of mass sexual abuse against HD and Prajwal Revanna. The state government, under chief minister Siddaramaiah, constituted the SIT on April 27 following a request from the Karnataka State Women’s Commission.
The first case was registered against Prajwal and his father for alleged sexual harassment at the Holenarsipura police station in Hassan district on April 28, based on a complaint by a 47-year-old woman who accused the father and son of harassing her and her daughter, who worked at Revanna’s house.
On Saturday, Siddaramaiah held an “important meeting” with the SIT officials, during which he instructed that immediate action be taken to arrest Prajwal.
“We will proceed for arrest with appropriate measures. There is a possibility of CBI issuing a Blue Corner Notice, which will speed up the investigation,” news agency PTI quoted a statement from the CM’s office as saying. “They (SIT officials) have assured that they will arrest and get the accused back, as soon as they get the information from the airports,” it added.
A Blue Notice is issued by the international police cooperation body to collect additional information from its member countries about a person’s identity, location or activities in relation to a crime.
The SIT is said to have sent a request to CBI, the nodal body for Interpol matters in India, seeking a Blue Notice against Prajwal, the officials said, adding that once CBI issues this notice, SIT hopes to get information about the whereabouts of the Hassan MP.
According to PTI, Prajwal is said to have flown abroad on April 27, a day after the first phase of Lok Sabha polls in Karnataka was held. The SIT has issued a lookout notice against him.
A political slugfest over the case continued with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi writing a letter to CM Siddaramaiah, requesting him to extend all possible support to the victims in the case, even as he hit out at the BJP and the JD(S).
In his letter to Siddaramaiah dated May 3, Gandhi alleged that Prajwal sexually assaulted and filmed hundreds of women over several years. Many who looked up to him as a brother and son were “brutalised in the most violent manner and robbed of their dignity. The rape of our mothers and sisters warrants the strictest possible punishment.”
“What is even more shocking is that despite these gruesome allegations being brought to the notice of the senior most BJP leadership, the prime minister campaigned and canvassed for a mass rapist. Furthermore, the Union Government wilfully allowed him to flee India to derail any meaningful investigation,” Gandhi said in the letter.
Responding to the letter, the chief minister assured Gandhi of an “impartial investigation”.
BJP has rejected the charge and distanced itself from the case, stating that it concerned only the MP, and law will take its course.
The second phase of polling in 14 constituencies in Karnataka will take place on May 7.
