New Delhi:

Karnataka lawmaker Prajwal Revanna – who fled to Germany last month, shortly after horrific sex crimes allegations by women who said he forced them into sexual acts – released a statement Monday, claiming comments and “political drama” by opposition leaders, including Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, “drove me to depression and I was pushed into isolation”. 

“I apologise to my parents… I was in depression. I will come (back to India) and appear before the SIT (a special investigative team set up by the state government) on May 31 (Friday),” Revanna said.

“I will cooperate to the best of my abilities and provide all answers. I have full faith in the legal system (and) I will come out of these false cases against me. I have the blessings of God and my family…”

On May 1, four days after he fled the country, Revanna posted a message on X. He said, “I am not in Bengaluru… I have communicated (to the police) through my lawyer. The truth will prevail soon.”

Revanna is a Janata Dal (Secular) leader and the grandson of party patriarch and ex-Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, and nephew of senior leader and ex-Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy.

He is also the sitting MP from Karnataka’s Hassan Lok Sabha seat, which he has been nominated to defend in the 2024 general election. The JDS is allied with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP.

Revanna’s message – his first public comment on charges against him – comes after a warning from Deve Gowda, who told his grandson to return home and surrender “or face your family’s anger”.

READ | “Surrender Or Face My Anger”: Deve Gowda To Grandson Revanna

Deve Gowda said he had warned Revanna to “not test my patience” and that it took him time to recover from the “shock and pain”. The former Prime Minister – targeted by the ruling Congress, former allies turned political rivals, over claims it was he sent Revanna abroad – stressed he had called for “the harshest punishment under the law” for his grandson “if (he is) found guilty…”

I have issued a warning to @iPrajwalRevanna to return immediately from wherever he is and subject himself to the legal process. He should not test my patience any further. pic.twitter.com/kCMuNJOvAo

— H D Deve Gowda (@H_D_Devegowda) May 23, 2024

Revanna’s uncle, HD Kumaraswamy, has also made an appeal.

READ | “If You Have Respect…”: HD Kumaraswamy’s Appeal To Revanna

The ex-Chief Minister last week also appealed to his nephew. “I have openly appealed to him… told him, ‘if you have respect for the party and Deve Gowda, come back…’ Cooperate with the probe. If you have not done anything prove it. If you have, then face the punishment,” Revanna was told.

READ | Deve Gowda Sent Grandson Abroad: Siddaramaiah On Ex-PM’s Letter

Revanna’s return home may be complicated by the fact the Ministry of External Affairs is set to cancel his diplomatic passport. A request to this effect has been made by the state government.

The centre is in the process of cancelling the travel document, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said. Mr Jaishankar also took the chance for a jibe against Karnataka’s ruling Congress, declaring the request to cancel the passport was made only on May 21, several days after the scandal broke.

NDTV Analysis | Systemic Failure In Not Forcing Revanna To Face Law

The Congress and the BJP have attacked each other over the Revanna case.

The former has pointed to the alliance between the BJP and the JDS to claim Prajwal Revanna is being shielded, while the latter has criticised the state government for delayed reactions.

Prajwal Revanna – who faces an arrest warrant from a MP/MLA court – has denied all charges.

New Delhi:

Given the public outcry and mass mobilisation that we have seen over, at least, some high profile cases of sexual assault on women, it needs to be asked if the reaction to the Prajwal Revanna sexual crimes, including rape, case has been muted, socially and politically.

Is it being seen more in the realm of a political exchange and less as what it should be – a case of multiple rapes and sexual assaults. Yes, no one is guilty till proven so in a court of law and politics is filled with wild allegations, but here there are videos and statements by victims against the JDS Hassan member of parliament and, in a bulldozer justice era, the least that needs to be ensured is he is questioned by authorities and faces due process.

A group of over 100 intellectuals in Karnataka wrote a petition to the Chief Minister seeking his immediate arrest. The authors listed a few demands – from providing a safe environment for the witnesses, seeking immediate arrest of the driver of Prajwal (who is believed to have approached some political leaders with the pen drive containing the horrific and sleazy Prajwal videos ), demanding cases to be booked against family member as accomplices and requesting interrogation of politicians, intelligence and police officials who may have colluded to help Prajwal leave the country before a case was registered on the 28th of April.

There are serious moral questions to the JDS on why it hasn’t forced Prajwal back or even take political action to force him back. It seems more interested in attacking the Congress for leaking the videos, who leaked the videos by itself is an important matter of investigations but the first focus is the getting their MP before the law. There are questions over the BJP trying to distance itself from the case and not aggressively forcing it’s ally the JDS to act on the case. Also, if the centre should be more aggressive in this case.  

There are also questions to the Congress which rules the State and investigators if they are treating this case as severely as they should. Or is the Congress looking at this with a post poll political calculus in mind.

This really needs rise above a Congress Vs JDS-BJP exchange or a Centre versus State issue. There are crucial questions over whether the investigators, prosecutors and courts have been aggressive enough in this case.

For instance, twenty days on we are still only at a blue-collar notice. There are questions over whether his passport ought to have been cancelled by now or if the prosecutors should have at least moved the court for an order to impound or cancel his passport or other stern actions to force him back. This is not just about procedural, legal action but also the optics and public pressure in the case. 

Given that Prajwal is not in India, the CBI becomes the nodal agency in sending requests to the interpol to have notices issued. From a pedestrian point of view, a blue corner notice is to say that there is a look out for a person, but a red corner notice is declaring him or her a proclaimed offender, technically making him a criminal wherever he or she is. There is no clarity on what steps have been taken to move towards such a notice.

When there are serious charges like rape involved, with punishment of over 7 years, there is no arrest warrant required. The accused could face direct arrest anywhere in India. Investigators say the process of collection of evidence is still in progress to build the case for a red corner notice. But there are multiple statements from victims that have been recorded before the magistrate under section 164 of the CRPC. In rape and sexual assault cases, even an uncorroborated statement by a victim has significant evidentiary value and in this case there is also alleged videographic evidence.

Certainly, all sides are beginning to seem like they lack the will to force Prajwal back to even merely face investigations.

Prajwal’s father H D Revanna was arrested in a case of abduction and spent six days in jail before being released on bail on Tuesday. He faces another case of molestation as well, where he has been granted interim bail and final order is expected on 24th. There are concerns as we move further away in time that the focus on the case, and hence the case itself, would only get weaker.

Meanwhile, the JDS has demanded a CBI probe into the case. Prajwal clearly seems to be biding time till the election results are out. While it shouldn’t matter who wins or loses, the fear is it will.

It is a dangerous precedent if a sitting MP is being allowed to dodge investigators in a case of rape and irrespective of the political mud-slinging, a clear, transparent and aggressive investigation is the least that needs to be ensured.

He doesn’t have to be vilified or portrayed as guilty till the due process is followed, but ensuring the due process is followed is a responsibility of the State, the Centre, the Congress, BJP, JDS, media and civil society.  

Bengaluru:

Janata Dal (Secular) lawmaker Sharangouda Kandkur has demanded the suspension of party MP Prajwal Revanna amid a row over explicit videos – allegedly showing the Hassan MP sexually assaulting multiple women – that began circulating a day after voting in his constituency. 

In a two-page letter made public Monday morning, Mr Kandkur told party patriarch and former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda the JDS had been left “embarrassed by the circulating videos, and it damages the reputation of both you and your party.”

Mr Revanna – who is Mr Deve Gowda’s nephew – is not currently in India. He left for Germany Saturday morning, shortly after the videos emerged online. On Sunday he filed a police complaint claiming the clips – there are reportedly thousands – were doctored. The videos, he claimed, were being distributed to “tarnish his image and poison voters’ minds”. 

This was a day after the Congress government led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said a special team had been set up to investigate the case.

READ | Siddaramaiah Sets Up Team To Probe Sex Scandal Involving JDS MP

The JDS, which has allied with the BJP for the 2024 Lok Sha election, has refused to comment pending a complete inquiry. 

However, senior party leader and former Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy – who is Mr Deve Gowda’s son – said there could be no question of forgiving anyone who had committed a crime.

READ | “Let Facts Come Out”: HD Kumaraswamy On Nephew’s Sex Scandal

He also said the party had nothing to do with Mr Revanna apparently fleeing the country. “If he has gone to a foreign country getting him back is their (the special investigative team) responsibility. What should I say… SIT will get him, don’t worry.”

The scandal broke last week after a woman filed a police case against Mr Revanna, accusing him of sexual assault. The case was filed at a police station in his constituency.

She alleged she had been sexually abused multiple times between 2019 and 2022. The clips circulating show more women and they are likely to come forward to file cases too.

The row has also snowballed into a political squabble between the JDS and the BJP, with some of the national party’s leaders distancing themselves from the state party and calling for a rethink. S Prakash, the BJP state unit’s chief spokesperson, said, “We, as a party, have nothing to do with the videos and neither do we have any comments to make…”

The ruling Congress, meanwhile, has also gotten involved, after reports some BJP leaders had told their party’s state boss, BY Vijayendra, of the clips back in December. They have questioned their rival’s decision to field Mr Revanna despite knowledge of the videos.

Fourteen of Karnataka’s 28 Lok Sabha seats, including Hassan, voted in the second phase last week. The remaining 14 are due to vote in the third phase on May 7, but the JDS is not contesting any of these seats. As per the seat-share agreement, the party – which broke from the Congress to join the BJP in October – fought only three in south Karnataka.

Bengaluru:

A woman has filed a police case against Karnataka MP Prajwal Revanna over alleged sexual assault, the police said today amid a huge row over purported obscene videos. The First Information Report (FIR) has been filed with Holenarasipur police station in Hassan district.

Prajwal Revanna, the Janata Dal (Secular) MP and grandson of former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, has denied the allegations and filed a police complaint too, saying the obscene videos in circulation were morphed.

Prajwal Revanna left for Germany yesterday morning.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah yesterday said the state government will form a special investigation team (SIT) to look into the obscene videos case.

The decision to set up the SIT came after the state women’s commission recommended the Siddaramaiah government to take action.

Obscene video clips are circulating in Hassan district, where it appears that women have been sexually assaulted, the Chief Minister said.

In the FIR, the survivor alleged she was sexually abused multiple times between 2019 and 2022. The complaint will be sent to the new SIT. More women are likely to come forward to file cases, sources said.

Prajwal Revanna was the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate in the Hassan Lok Sabha constituency, where voting was held in the second phase on April 26. Janata Dal (Secular), or JD(S), joined the NDA in September last year.

The BJP has distanced itself from Prajwal Revanna amid the controversy around his purported sex tapes.

“We, as a party, have nothing to do with the videos and neither do we have any comments to make on the SIT probe announced by the state government into the alleged sex scandal involving Prajwal Revanna,” BJP state spokesperson S Prakash said.