Karnataka SIT gets custody of former JDS MP Prajwal Revanna in second of 3 rape cases being probed

Prajwal Revanna was earlier held in SIT custody for 10 days for investigation in the first of the three cases registered against the former MP on the basis of a complaint by a cook who was employed at the Holenarasipura home of his family in the Hassan region of Karnataka.

The SIT has now taken Prajwal Revanna into custody for the investigation of a case of alleged sexual assault of a domestic worker employed by his family. The victim was allegedly kidnapped in April this year on the directions of Prajwal Revanna’s parents after videos of the former MP, which appeared in the public domain, revealed the alleged cases of sexual assault.

The recovery of a mobile phone used by the former MP to record his alleged sexual assault in the second rape case is among the reasons cited by the SIT for taking Prajwal Revanna into custody for investigations in the second case.

Following the arrest of Prajwal Revanna in the second rape case on Wednesday, an anticipatory bail plea he filed earlier in the case was rendered infructuous by a special sessions court.

“Learned counsel for petitioner has filed a memo requesting the court to dispose of the above case as it has become infructuous. The memo is taken on record and accordingly, the above case is dismissed as infructuous,” said the special sessions court for elected representatives.

The special court, meanwhile, dismissed an anticipatory bail plea filed by Prajwal Revanna in the third sexual assault case registered for coercion of a JDS party worker from Hassan.

Prajwal Revanna, who left the country after his sex videos appeared in the public domain around the April 26 Lok Sabha polls in Hassan, returned to India on May 31 and was arrested by the SIT at the Bengaluru International Airport.

He lost the Hassan MP seat on June 3 when the votes were counted for the Lok Sabha polls.

The SIT has registered three cases of sexual assault against Prajwal Revanna on the basis of evidence found in the alleged sex videos and after tracing the victims found in the videos.

The SIT has said that the woman victim, who was allegedly kidnapped after the leak of pen drives containing explicit videos, was a victim of sexual assault by Prajwal Revanna. She had worked for six years at the home of the accused and was forcibly taken away on April 29 from her home by associates of Revanna’s parents, the SIT has said in court arguments.