iCloud data likely to play key role in probe into MP Prajwal Revanna cases

The videos, including those involving alleged assault, are alleged to have been recorded on an iPhone belonging to the MP. As many as 2,967 clips of videos and images purportedly recorded by the MP emerged in the public domain on pen drives and CDs distributed around Hassan ahead of the elections where Revanna was the NDA candidate.

The videos are alleged to have been stolen by a car driver N Karthik, who was trusted by the MP for 13 years before the duo had a falling out in early 2023. The videos and images are reported to have been transferred from Revanna’s iPhone to Karthik’s iPhone through the ‘AirDrop’ system that allows the transfer of files between two iOS devices using wireless communication technology.

Following the alleged theft of data from his phone by Karthik, Revanna had reported the loss of his phone in 2023 to local authorities and had filed a case against Karthik and media outlets in June 2023 to prevent “the publication of publishing and circulating such fake news, morphed photographs/video”.

In the absence of the iPhones used to allegedly record and share the videos, the data stored on iCloud accounts linked to the iPhones has emerged as a key source of information to establish the digital trail of the alleged sex videos, including their origin.

Sources said investigations had established that some of the people linked to the Revanna cases, including a few arrested people, had access to the iCloud storage.

According to Apple’s legal process guidelines for law enforcement agencies, “All requests from government and law enforcement agencies outside of the United States for content, with the exception of emergency circumstances” must comply with the United States Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA).

“A request under a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty or the Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act (“CLOUD Act”) is in compliance with ECPA,” as per the Apple guidelines.

The probe so far: 3 men arrested, 4 others named in police complaint

Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka on April 26, Poornachandra Tejasvi, an election agent for Prajwal Revanna, filed a police complaint on April 23 against four people, including Karthik, alleging that they had been distributing morphed, obscene videos and images of the Hassan MP on pen drives, CDs and social media in Hassan. On April 27, Revanna is alleged to have fled to Germany.

On May 8, a district court in Hassan rejected the anticipatory bail plea of the four people named in the April 23 police complaint. The court rejected the anticipatory bail pleas of Chetan C, 32, Naveen Gowda, 34, Karthik N, 40, and Puttaraju alias Putti, 50, on the grounds that the spread of the videos with the images of women amounted to a violation of privacy, dignity and caused embarrassment to the women.

Karthik and three others are yet to be apprehended. Karthik released a video message earlier on April 30 claiming he had not leaked the sex videos of Revanna but had shared it with BJP leader G Devaraje Gowda, who was his advocate in a case against the Revannas.

In the course of the anticipatory bail hearing, the Hassan sessions court was informed by a state prosecutor that police had written to the social media service provider Meta, through the state advocate general, for information regarding a fake Facebook account in the name of ‘Naveen Gowda’ which revealed the release of the videos.

The SIT has arrested Likhith Gowda, Y Chethan and G Devaraje Gowda for their alleged involvement in leaking the obscene videos. Gowda and Chetan are linked to the former Hassan town BJP MLA Preetham Gowda while Devaraje Gowda, the advocate for Karthik, was a BJP candidate in the 2023 Karnataka Assembly polls but lost to H D Revanna, Prajwal’s father.

Devaraje Gowda was initially arrested by the Hassan police on May 11 in connection with a sexual harassment case filed against him on April 1 but was later taken into custody by the SIT in the Prajwal Revanna case. The BJP leader had earlier accused Congress leaders in Karnataka of being behind the distribution of the alleged sex videos.