File photo of suspended Janata Dal (Secular) (JD-S) MP Prajwal Revanna, who was arrested by SIT in the alleged obscene video case at the Bengaluru Airport after he landed, he was being taken to the CID office, in Bengaluru.
| Photo Credit: ANI
One of the big hallmarks of 2024, was definitely the sexual abuse and harassment charges that surfaced against several high profile politicians including a former chief minister, a sitting member of parliament and three former ministers.
But in a case against ruling party MLA Vinay Kulkarni accused of rape and abduction, where the investigation is still underway, all the rest of the cases against former chief minister B. S. Yediyurappa, then MP from Hassan Prajwal Revanna, his brother MLC Suraj Revanna, his father H. D. Revanna and former minister and MLA Munirathna have been chargesheeted, by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), in the same year. All the cases are being probed by teams led by Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) B. K. Singh.
The first such case to come up was in March when the mother of a 17-year-old minor girl alleged Mr. Yediyurappa sexually harassed her daughter when they had been to his house seeking help in February. A case was registered against him under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 and transferred to the CID, which filed a chargesheet against him in the case in June. The case is yet to come up for trial in the court.
Days before Hassan went to parliamentary polls, several sexual clips allegedly of incumbent JDS MP Prajwal Revanna made the rounds in Hassan. Hours after the polling Prajwal Revanna fled the country. While the large cache of sex videos involved nearly 90 women, only four of them came forward to lodge a complaint.
One of the victims, a former house maid in Prajwal’s house, alleged that his father and former minister H. D. Revanna also sexually harassed her. He was also booked in the case. One of the victims, seen resisting Prajwal’s advances but still raped on video, was allegedly abducted at the behest of Mr. Revanna to prevent her from testifying against Prajwal. She was rescued by the SIT and hours later Mr. Revanna was arrested from the house of former prime minister H. D. Deve Gowda. He was later released on bail.
Prajwal returned to the country on May 30 and was arrested. He has been in prison ever since. There were four rape cases registered against him and chargesheets have been filed in all four cases. His bail petitions in these cases were rejected even by the Supreme Court in November. Amidst these allegations, Prajwal’s elder brother Suraj Revanna was accused of sexually abusing a male JDS worker. SIT has chargesheeted him as well.
Meanwhile, what started out as a case of caste abuse against a former councillor by BJP MLA Munirathna, opened floodgates against him in September. A total of four cases, including charges of rape, honey trap, attempt to get people infected with HIV infected blood, were booked against him. He has been chargesheeted in two cases, including for rape. He is presently out on bail.
In October, a woman alleged abduction and rape by Congress MLA from Dharwad Vinay Kulkarni, even as he filed a counter-complaint against the owner of a private Kannada news channel of blackmail. The case was transferred to the CID, and the probe is still on.
Published – December 28, 2024 06:36 am IST
