Bengaluru: Karnataka Police’s Special Investigation Team (SIT), which is probing four cases of sexual assault and harassment against former Janata Dal-Secular (JDS) leader Prajwal Revanna, has filed a chargesheet in the first of the four cases. This case pertains to accusations of sexual harassment of a cook and her daughter by Prajwal Revanna and his father, JDS MLA HD Revanna. The FIR, in this case, was registered by the Holenarasipura Town police on April 28, and the charge of rape was added against Prajwal based on a statement made by the victim in court later.
Prajwal, who is the grandson of former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, was suspended from JD(S) after a huge cache of explicit videos allegedly showing him sexually abusing several women became public hours before polling for the Hassan Lok Sabha seat on April 26. A former MP, Prajwal had contested the recent Lok Sabha election as an NDA candidate from Hassan and lost.
What Does SIT Report Say?
The 2,144-page-long charge sheet, submitted late on Friday in a special court for public representatives, comprises the statements of about 150 witnesses. It provides harrowing details of sexual abuse, rape and intimidation of a woman employed in the Revanna household by Prajwal and his father, Hindustan Times reported quoting a police officer. During the probe, police reportedly found that Prajwal had a history of sexually harassing multiple women, recording the assaults, and using the footage to blackmail them.
The charge sheet contains spot inspection, biological, physical, scientific, mobile, digital and other relevant evidence which were gathered. Further, expert opinion was taken before filing the charge sheet.
The charge sheet also includes spot inspection, biological, physical, scientific, mobile, digital and technical evidence to support the allegations against the two. Apart from the victim and her daughter, two other victims of sexual harassment by the former MP are also witnesses in the chargesheet, according to a report by Indian Express.
“The SIT conducted a comprehensive investigation of the case, interrogated more than 150 witnesses, and recorded the statements of the victims and witnesses under Section 164 of the CrPC, the place, and location of the crimes,” the SIT said after filing the chargesheet.
The chargesheet reportedly said that HD Revanna sexually harassed the house help multiple times between 2019 and 2022. As per the HT report, the domestic worker was initially hired on the recommendation of Revanna’s wife, Bhavani as a kitchen help at a hostel for backward-class girls in Holenarasipur in Hassan. However, later she also worked at the Revanna household.
The charge sheet elaborated on how Revanna harassed the woman at his family home. It also accused Prajwal of repeatedly assaulting the same woman. The chargesheet mentioned one specific incident from 2020 in detail, where Prajwal raped the woman at his house in Bangalore’s Basavanagudi and recorded the assault on his mobile phone. In the recordings, the woman can be reportedly heard pleading with the former MP in a bid to dissuade him., but he, however, threatened her, saying, “If you reveal this, I’ll send your husband to jail. I’ll do the same to your daughter. I know how to close any case, no matter what. I’m an MP, and nobody can do anything to me.”
As per the police, the SIT found that Prajwal sexually assaulted several other women, filmed the assaults, and used the videos to blackmail the women. After these videos became public, SIT said that Prajwal tried to from the country and destroy the evidence, including mobile phones containing incriminating footage.
While the charge sheet only pertains to one case, the SIT is selected to soon submit charge sheets in other cases, including additional rape charges and the Hassan pen drive case.
Charges against Prajwal Revanna, his father HD Revanna
While the MLA Revanna, who is the son of former Prime Minister and JD(S) supremo HD Deve Gowda, has been booked for sexual harassment with sections 354 and 354 (A) of the IPC, his 33-year-old son Prajwal has been booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including sexual assault (376, 376(2)(k)), sexual harassment (354, 354(2), 354(6)), causing the disappearance of evidence (201), criminal intimidation (506), insulting the modesty of a woman (509), and under section 66(E) of the Information Technology Act for violation of privacy.
Following this, the Chairperson of Karnataka State Commission for Women Nagalakshmi Chowdhary had sought an inquiry and wrote to the Congress government, which then ordered an investigation.
