SIT indictment – The Week

Outrageous details of suspended Janata Dal (Secular) leader and former Lok Sabha MP Prajwal Revanna’s sex crimes have come to light after the Special Investigative Team (SIT) filed the chargesheet against him in the Special Court for Electoral Agents.

Prajwal Revanna, the grandson of JD(S) patriarch HD Deve Gowda and son of party MP HD Revanna, is accused in several cases of rape and sexual harassment. The sexual abuse cases came to light after USB sticks containing explicit videos involving Prajwal Revanna were allegedly circulated in Hassan ahead of the Lok Sabha elections there on April 26. The JD(S) suspended him from the party following the charges levelled against him.

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According to the SIT's 1,632-page chargesheet, Prajwal used his mobile phone to ensure that his victims obeyed and always followed his orders. He repeatedly demanded sexual favours from these women, including from maids hired by his family, and used videos of him sexually harassing them in the past as a tool of blackmail. He often filmed himself sexually abusing many of the survivors with the sole intention of threatening them at his convenience, the SIT found.

Among his victims was a maid from the Revannas' house, who was named as witness number 1 in the chargesheet, the news said. The woman told the investigation team that Prajwal Revanna had also sexually harassed her daughter, a report by The South First said.

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The woman alleged that Prajwal video-called her married daughter and asked her to undress on camera. The mother and daughter were living together when the incident occurred. When the witness's horrified daughter refused to comply, the former Hassan MP threatened to tell her husband that she was having a relationship with him, the chargesheet said.

The witness said her daughter finally stirred and undressed herself on camera, which was recorded by Prajwal Revanna. The SIT found that these nude pictures of the witness' daughter were later posted online by him, the news report said.

SIT claims Prajwal Revanna deliberately destroyed his phone

Without the consent of the survivors, Revanna often recorded their videos and private pictures. The mobile phone that the former MP used during 2019-2020 was the device used to film and store all these acts, so he deliberately destroyed it when he realized that things were starting to get out of control, the investigation team claimed.

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“…he fled abroad and deliberately destroyed the mobile evidence. This was proved during the investigation. Hence, he was charged under various sections of the IPC and IT Act,” the chargesheet said.

Prajwal Revanna has been charged under several sections of the IPC and the Information Technology (IT) Act. IPC Section 376(2)(k) – rape by a person in a position of power or dominance over a woman, Section 354(A) – sexual harassment, Section 354(B) – assault or force with intent to disrobe a woman, Section 354(C) – voyeurism, Section 506 – criminal intimidation and Section 376(2) – repeated rape of the same woman, to name a few.