Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday said the state government would get Hassan JDS MP Prajwal Revanna back to Karnataka to face the police investigation from whichever country he had flown to.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Karnataka Police is probing charges of sexual abuse of women Revanna Jr is facing.
Responding to queries on reports of the accused MP flying to Dubai from Germany, the CM said in Bagalkot that he had to come back from wherever he was.
Siddaramaiah accused the Centre of protecting Revanna Jr, who is the NDA candidate from Hassan in the April 26 polls. The MP, he added, could not have fled the country without the knowledge of the Centre.
This was exactly why, the CM said, he wrote to the Prime Minister requesting his intervention to cancel Revanna Jr’s diplomatic passport. “Once it is cancelled, he cannot stay in any foreign country,” Siddaramaiah said. He also added that he had directed the police to protect victims connected with the case.
The Hassan MP, who is also the grandson of former PM HD Deve Gowda, was facing the charges of sexual harassment. Yet, the BJP had entered into an electoral understanding with that party, Siddaramaiah said.
In a related development, the MP’s father, JDS MLA (Holenarasipur) HD Revanna withdrew his application for anticipatory bail from the special court for public representatives on instructions from the court.
The court’s comments followed submission from special public prosecutor (SPP) BN Jagadish, who said the SIT had not invoked any section for offence of rape on the petitioner and the sections recorded were all bailable.
Revanna’s advocate said his client was seeking anticipatory bail as he feared the police may later invoke non-bailable sections, later. They, however, withdrew the application after it became clear that the MLA did not face any threat of imminent arrest.
Meanwhile, the son of a former domestic help at Revanna’s Holenarasipur house has filed a complaint at the KR Nagar Police station saying his mother had been missing for the last four days. He complained that his mother left home with a youth who said Bhavani Revanna wanted to meet her. The police are investigating a case of suspected abduction. The CM said he had instructed the police to protect the family whose member was said to have been abducted.
A Zilla Panchayat member from Hassan also gave a statement before the SIT on Friday charging Revanna Jr with sexual abuse. The SIT also questioned Holenarasipur BJP leader and the party candidate in the 2018 assembly polls Devaraje Gowda related to the leaks and widespread circulation of explicit videos revealing the identity of women. “I have provided names of people behind the leaks. I have faith in the SIT probe,” Gowda said emerging from the CID headquarters where the SIT was functioning from.
The SIT has been pursuing a look-out notice it issued against Revanna Jr on Thursday, alerting the airport authorities and other probe agencies.
The notice comes in connection with a first information report the police registered in Hassan last week, naming Revanna and son Prajwal Revanna on a woman’s complaint. The complainant alleged that she and her daughter were sexually harassed by the father-son duo. The police have also recorded a statement by another woman against Revanna Jr under the CrPC.
