Prajwal Revanna, accused of rape, sent to 6-day SIT custody
Prajwal Revanna has been sent to 6-day SIT custody in the obscene video case for which the special investigation team sought the suspended JD(S) MP’s custody for 14 days.
Prajwal was arrested late last night from Bengaluru airport as he arrived in India to join the SIT investigation after being incommunicado for a month as the allegations against him, his father surfaced and snowballed into a major political storm. In this one month, he was suspended from the party, his father was arrested and then released on bail, and his grandfather former PM HD Deve Gowda made an appeal to him to come back to India and join the investigation.
The ministry of external affairs initiated the process of revoking his diplomatic passport on which he went to Germany a day before the issue surfaced. Prajwal has been accused of sexually assaulting several women and recording them.
In police custody, Prajwal’s lawyers will be allowed to meet him for one hour in the morning.
The 33-year-old contested the Lok Sabha election from Hassan, the seat that he won in 2019.
Prajwal’s advocate said he was extending full cooperation to the SIT probe the custody was not needed. Karnataka home minister G Parameshwara said the government has been appealing to more victims to come forward without any fear.
From the airport, Prajwal was then taken in a jeep in which only women police were present. They took him to the CID office. “It was a conscious call to send women officers to arrest Prajwal, sending home a message that the JD(S) leader exploited his seat and power as an MP with women. The same women have authority to arrest him through all legal proceedings,” a source in the SIT said. There was also a symbolic message to the alleged victims that women officers were not afraid of anyone, the source added.
Prajwal was later taken for medical examination under tight security where he was escorted by women cops. The SIT is also contemplating a potency test on Prajwal to ascertain if a rape accused is capable of committing sexual assault on victims.