May 01, 2024 04:50 AM IST
The former driver of Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna said on Tuesday that he gave a pen drive filled with videos showing purported sexual acts by the Janata Dal (Secular) leader with multiple women, which have sparked allegations of mass sexual abuse, to a local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and not the Congress.
The former driver of Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna said on Tuesday that he gave a pen drive filled with videos showing purported sexual acts by the Janata Dal (Secular) leader with multiple women, which have sparked allegations of mass sexual abuse, to a local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and not the Congress.
His comments – via a video statement uploaded on social media – came on a day Prawjal, the grandson of JD(S) chief and former prime minister HD Deve Gowda, was suspended from the party amid mounting criticism of the leader who is also the Lok Sabha candidate from Hassan, which voted on April 26.
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Karthik, who goes by a single name, said he approached Devaraje Gowda, who was fighting against the JD(S) first family politically, to “seek justice” after the Revanna family harassed him and forcefully transferred a parcel of land he owned to their name. Devaraje Gowda had contested the 2023 assembly polls from Holenarasipura constituency on a BJP ticket, but lost to Prajwal’s father, HD Revanna.
“I don’t know whether he (Devaraje) distributed the pen drive or gave it to someone else for the purpose, or BJP people did it. But I did not give the pen drive to anyone except him. Now, he is blaming me for giving it to Congress leaders. If I were to give it to Congress leaders, why would I approach him for justice?” Karthik asked in the clip.
The video message came hours after Deveraje Gowda accused Karthik of sharing the videos with the Congress first.
Read more: Prajwal Revanna ‘sex videos’: BJP leader blames ‘communication gap’ for poll ticket
“Karthik, the driver of Prajwal Revanna, came to me and said he was being harassed. He said that he (Prajwal) has several obscene videos. I asked if he had given this video to anyone. Karthik said he had given the obscene videos to the Congress president,” Gowda told reporters earlier in the day.
He said that neither the JD(S) nor the BJP would release the videos as it would go against the National Democratic Alliance candidate. “If there was someone benefiting from this, it was the Congress. Only for his political gain, the Congress candidate (Shreyas Patel) has mortgaged the modesty of women seen in the videos,” Devaraje Gowda said.
He said he was waiting for the Karnataka government’s special investigation team (SIT) to serve him a notice where he will release important documents. The BJP leader said Congress leaders will fall in the ditch they had dug for others.
But Karthik contradicted Deveraje Gowda. He said he had approached G Devaraje Gowda for justice. “Devaraje Gowda told me to hand over the photos and videos which he promised to hand over to the judge to help vacate the stay. Trusting him, I gave him a copy, which he used,” the driver said.
“Other than Devaraje Gowda, I did not give this video to Congress leaders or anyone else. I did not give the videos and photos to Congress leaders because they were quite close to Prajwal. Hence, I approached Devaraje Gowda, but he too cheated me,” Karthik alleged.
The driver said that he worked with Prajwal for the last 15 years but left him a year ago.
“The reason (for distancing from Prajwal) was that my land was taken away and my wife was beaten up. I was mentally tortured. Since my land was taken away, I came out of the job and started my fight (to get back land),” Karthik said in the message.
On Saturday, Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah set up a SIT to probe the charges, following a request from the Karnataka State Women’s Commission.
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Arun Dev is an Assistant Editor with the Karnataka bureau of Hindustan Times. A journalist for over 10 years, he has written extensively on crime and politics.
