Sexual harassment, stalking case filed against HD Revanna, son Prajwal

A case of sexual harassment and stalking was registered on Sunday (April 28) against former minister HD Revanna and Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna. Revanna and Prajwal are the the son and grandson respectively of former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda. 

The case, in what has come to be known as the 'pen drive sexual scandal', was registered in Holenarasipur police station in Hassan district based on a complaint by their cook. The complainant said she is a relative of Revanna’s wife Bhavani.

She alleged that four months after she started working, Revanna used to sexually harass her, and his son Prajwal used to make video calls to her daughter and have "vulgar conversations" with her.

She also alleged that there is a threat to her life as well as other members of her family. 

SIT constituted

The Karnataka government constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Sunday morning to investigate serious allegations of sexual assault against Prajwal by "thousands of women". The move followed a letter by the Chairperson of Women’s Commission, Nagalakshmi Chowdhary, to the government.

The 33-year-old Prajwal was the NDA candidate in the Hassan Lok Sabha constituency, which went to polls on April 26. The JD(S) joined the NDA in September last year.

The three-member SIT of IPS officers is led by the Additional Director General of Police (CID) Bijay Kumar Singh. The other two are Assistant Inspector General of Police Suman D Pennekar and Mysuru Superintendent of Police Seema Latkar.

The SIT has been directed to complete its investigation soon.

Video clips

The decision to constitute an SIT was announced by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

Some explicit video clips allegedly involving Prajwal had started making the rounds in Hassan in recent days. The police have information that Prajwal has left the country, according to a statement issued by the Chief Minister’s Office.

Chaudhary on Thursday wrote to Siddaramaiah and state police chief Alok Mohan seeking a probe into the videos that are in circulation in Hassan.

Through his election agent, Prajwal has lodged a complaint with the authorities that the videos are "doctored" and being circulated to tarnish his image ahead of the elections.