A search operation was launched on Friday following a complaint lodged by the son of a woman, who was reportedly seen in a video being sexually assaulted by Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna, alleging his mother’s kidnapping, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) officials said.
The missing woman’s 20-year-old son filed a complaint with the KR Nagar Police Station in Mysuru District on Thursday night, stating that his mother was coerced and taken away by an individual known to the Revanna family.
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The complainant alleges that the kidnapper, identified as Satish Babanna, acted on the directives of HD Revanna, Prajwal’s father and JD(S) MLA, possibly to prevent the woman from testifying against Prajwal.
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Based on the complaint, a case of kidnapping has been registered against HD Revanna.
According to the complaint, Babanna initially convinced the woman to accompany him under the pretext of a summons from Bhavani Revanna, HD Revanna’s wife.
“Babanna dropped my mother at our house on the morning of polling day. He told my parents not to tell anything to the police if they came to our house and threatened us that we will be booked in a case and asked us to alert him if the police came by,” the complaint said.
However, on April 29, he returned, allegedly forcibly taking the woman away on his motorcycle, citing potential legal repercussions for the family.
The complainant said his mother worked as a house help at H D Revanna’s house in Holenarsipur and their farm for six years.
She quit the job three years ago and returned to her village where she now works as a daily wage worker.
“He said if my mother is caught by the police, it will become a case and all of us will go to jail. He said Revanna had asked him to bring my mother. He forced my mother and took her off on his bike,” read the FIR, a copy of which is available with HT.
The son added that he learned of a disturbing video depicting his mother’s sexual assault by Prajwal Revanna through conversations with acquaintances on May 1.
Despite his mother’s pleas for mercy, Prajwal allegedly committed the assault in the video, he wrote in the complaint.
“They told me that despite my mother pleading with him to spare her, Prajwal Revanna had raped her,” he said.
Attempts to retrieve his mother proved futile when Babanna, allegedly acting under HD Revanna’s instructions, referenced an unrelated incident, demanding bail for the woman.
This revelation led the complainant to suspect his mother’s kidnapping.
“I called Satish Babanna and asked him to bring back my mother. But he claimed that in an old incident where there was an altercation between Prajwal Revanna and others, a photo had come up which showed my mother with a stick and said now I had to get her out on bail,” he said, adding that this made him realise she was kidnapped.
Prajwal, the grandson of former premier and JD(S) president HD Deve Gowda, left India for Germany even as an SIT was formed to probe the allegations against him. Numerous videos, purportedly involving Prajwal, have been circulated in Karnataka and some appear to depict sexual assault.
According to police, a video circulating widely depicts the woman being assaulted by Prajwal and the SIT officials said that they are currently on the lookout for her.
