Videos of Revanna’s sexual acts with scores of women had surfaced in the public domain in April this year and The Karnataka government constituted a special investigation team to probe the allegations
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to interfere with the Karnataka high court’s October 21 order denying bail to former member of Parliament Prajwal Revanna in a rape case filed against him by a 47-year-old woman who used to work as his domestic help.
A bench headed by justice Bela M Trivedi and comprising justice Satish Chandra Sharma noted similar allegations of sexual assault against the suspended Janata Dal (Secular) leader, who is the grandson of former prime minister HD Deve Gowda, and observed that he is “so powerful”.
Videos of Revanna’s sexual acts with scores of women had surfaced in the public domain in April this year. The Karnataka government constituted a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the allegations of some of the women, who lodged cases against him.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi appearing for Revanna along with advocate Balaji Srinivasan said that this was a case of political conspiracy as the woman remained silent for four years since the alleged incident and chose to file a complaint when the petitioner was seeking re-election as MP from the Hassan Parliamentary constituency, which he represented since 2019.
Though he accepted that allegations are serious, he said that the original complaint did not mention the offence of rape (Section 376 of IPC). As investigation in the case was over, Rohatgi requested the court to release the petitioner as he had voluntarily surrendered to the police after having gone abroad.
As the bench was not inclined to consider these suggestions, Rohatgi requested permission to approach the court for bail after six months. However, the court refused to comment on this.
In her complaint, Revanna’s former maid alleged that he locked the door while she was working in his house, raped her and recorded the act on his mobile phone. Another complaint by her daughter claimed that he spoke to her on video call and pressurised her to undress on camera, while taking screen shots of the same.
Last month, the top court had refused to interfere with the anticipatory bail granted to Revanna’s mother Bhavani who was accused of kidnapping one of the survivors who had accused her son of rape.
