Supreme Court dismisses former JD(S) MP Prajwal Revanna’s bail plea in rape cases

Prajwal approached the Supreme Court after the Karnataka High Court rejected his prayer last month. His bail plea came up before a bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma.

Rape allegations against Prajwal emerged following the leak of explicit videos and images through pen drives distributed in Hassan ahead of the April 26 Lok Sabha elections where he was the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate. He was arrested on May 31, following his return from Germany, where he fled on April 27 after the videos emerged.

Appearing for Prajwal, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi said the complaint did not specifically speak about rape.

“I was abroad. I came back and surrendered. The chargesheet is filed now. I was earlier (an) MP,” Rohatgi said, adding that Prajwal lost the Lok Sabha elections due to all that had happened.

The court, however, refused to intervene and went on to dismiss the plea.

Rohatgi urged the court to apply again after six months but the bench said, “We won’t say anything.”

Dismissing his plea for bail and anticipatory bail, the high court had earlier said, “prima facie, the alleged acts of the petitioner depicts, wanton lust, depravity of senses, and has a chilling effect down the spine of the society.”

In one of the rape cases, in which a chargesheet was filed on September 9, Prajwal is accused of raping a domestic worker at his farm while “being in a position of control or dominance” over the woman. He is booked under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Section 376 (2) (k).

In a second rape case in which a chargesheet was filed against Prajwal on August 23 by the Karnataka Police Special Investigation Team (SIT), he is accused of sexually assaulting a cook who worked for his family and the alleged sexual harassment of the cook’s daughter during video phone calls. Prajwal sought bail in this case in the high court.

In the third rape case, he is accused of repeated sexual assault of a zilla panchayat member of his constituency over three years.

Prajwal has also been charged under Section 66E of the Information Technology Act for recording and sharing the attacks on women and for the destruction of evidence.