Prajwal Revanna sexual abuse case: Suspended JD(S) leader sent to SIT custody till June 10

Karnataka news: The People Representative Court sent suspended Janata Dal (Secular) leader Prajwal Revanna to Special Investigation Team (SIT) custody (police custody) till June 10. 

Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections on April 26, a huge cache of explicit videos went viral showing women being sexually assaulted, allegedly by Prajwal Revanna. 

Soon after the polling, Prajwal Revanna left India and was holed up in Germany for over a month. 

Taking note of the cases, the Karnataka government formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT), which arrested him on May 31 as soon as he landed at the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru.

The police also arrested his father and Holenarasipura MLA H D Revanna on charges of kidnapping a woman who had figured in one of the explicit videos where she was sexually assaulted allegedly by Prajwal. 

H D Revanna was later released after a court granted him bail. His wife and Prajwal’s mother Bhavani Revanna is absconding in the same kidnapping case.

 The 31-year-old Shreyas Patel had contested against H D Revanna in Holenarasipura in the assembly polls last year, but lost by 3,152 votes.

Prajwal Revanna, who is facing charges of sexually abusing several women, lost the Lok Sabha elections to Shreyas M Patel of the Congress by 42,549 votes on Tuesday.

The 33-year-old Prajwal Revanna, who is the grandson of former prime minister and JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda, was the only one from JD(S) to win the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka.

As per the results announced by the Election Commission of India on Tuesday, the BJP won 17 seats in Karnataka whereas its ally JD(S) won only two seats.

The Congress's performance in its ruled state has improved, increasing from one seat in 2019 to nine seats in 2024.

Congress won the most controversial Hassan seat after sitting MP Prajwal Revanna was accused in an obscene video case. Revanna lost the seat to Congress's Shreyas M Patel by a margin of 42,649 votes.

Polling for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka was held in the second and third phases on April 26 and May 7, respectively.