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Karnataka will investigate a lawmaker whose party is a key ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on suspicion of sexual harassment, the state’s chief minister has said.
The scion of a prominent political family, Member of Parliament Prajwal Revanna, 33, is the grandson of former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, the nephew of a former chief minister of the state and the son of another former Karnataka minister.
The accusations surfaced last week as half of the state voted in India’s seven-phase general elections, in which Mr Prajwal was seeking a second term for his Janata Dal (Secular) party.
“The government has decided to form a special investigation team in connection with Prajwal Revanna’s obscene video case,” Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, whose Congress party is a BJP rival, said in a social media post.
“Obscene video clips are circulating... where it appears that women have been sexually assaulted.”
The police registered a report against Mr Prajwal based on the statement of a woman who worked in the family home, and also named his father H.D. Revanna as a suspect, the media said.
Mr Prajwal is reportedly out of the country. Denying the allegations, he said he has informed the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) that he is currently not in Bengaluru, but will join the probe soon.
“As I am not in Bengaluru to attend the inquiry, I have communicated to CID through my advocate. Truth will prevail soon,” he said in a post on X.
His father told reporters on April 29 that his son would return when required. The same day, the JD (S) party announced it was suspending Mr Prajwal.
Thousands of videos allegedly showing the MP sexually abusing women are circulating in Karnataka, sparking outrage.
The allegations against Mr Prajwal first came to light in June last year, but he obtained a court order preventing the media from reporting what was described as “morphed videos”.
But five days before the April 26 voting in Hassan – from where Mr Prajwal is the MP and seeking another term – thousands of pen drives were circulated in public places such as bus stands and parks.
The clips, which reports said were shot by Mr Prajwal himself, showed the faces of the women he had allegedly abused.
Following a complaint from a woman, Karnataka’s women’s commission chief Nagalakshmi Chaudhary wrote to the state police chief seeking action against the perpetrators.
“Your blood boils when you see some of the videos,” she told the BBC. “There is one woman who is begging... ‘please don’t, please don’t’. You feel sick.”
On April 28, a 47-year-old woman, who worked as a cook for the family and identified herself as a cousin of Mr Prajwal’s mother, filed a police report alleging she was sexually abused by the MP and his father.
“When I joined, six other maids would say they were scared of Prajwal. The male employees, too, would ask us to be wary of Revanna and his son Prajwal,” she said in her report.
“Whenever his wife was away, Revanna would repeatedly touch me inappropriately, disrobe me and sexually assault me. While I was working in the kitchen, Prajwal would grope me from behind.”
The woman claimed she decided to step forward after watching clips of other victims online.
She also accused Mr Prajwal of abusing her daughter, and his father of stalking and criminal intimidation.
The case has sparked a political storm in Karnataka, with many questioning how someone “accused of such a horrific act” was permitted to leave the country without questioning.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah accused the Congress government in Karnataka of not taking any action over the obscene clips.
“The government is of Congress party. Why they have not taken any action till now?” asked Mr Shah.
Senior JD (S) leader and former state minister G.T. Deve Gowda said it would take disciplinary action against the two men if the charges were proven.
Reuters
“Your blood boils when you see some of the videos. There is one woman who is begging... ‘please don’t, please don’t’. You feel sick.”
