Despite charges against Prajwal, no proof of role in kidnapping of sex assault victim by father HD Revanna: Court in bail order

H D Revanna was released on Tuesday morning and went to meet his father, the former prime minister, H D Deve Gowda and other family members soon after his release.

The special court granted conditional bail to H D Revanna and has mandated that he or anyone connected to him should not contact the victim of sexual assault.

What the court said

“It is noticed from the records that though the allegation leveled against the petitioner is of abducting the victim, no materials have been produced to indicate his active role at this juncture,” Justice Santhosh Gajanan Bhatt has ruled.

“It is made clear that the observations made are only for the purpose of ascertaining the prima facie case and no observations are made with respect to merits of the case,” the court said.

“Though a serious allegation is leveled against the petitioner’s son, the same cannot be a ground to reject the bail petition unless it is pointed out that he would be a menace to the society. It is pertinent to note that though he is said to be an MLA and also an Ex-Minister, the same by itself will not prevent him from seeking bail or will not lead to an inference that he would threaten or tamper with the prosecution witnesses,” the court said in the bail order.

According to the court, the absence of criminal antecedents against H D Revanna is a ground for granting bail to the JDS MLA.

Case against Prajwal Revanna, his father HD Revanna

The Hassan JDS MP and H D Revanna’s son Prajwal Revanna who contested the April 26 Lok Sabha polls in Karnataka as a BJP candidate, is alleged to have fled the country on April 27 even as his sex videos emerged in the public domain.

Some of the sexual encounters of the MP has been revealed through the videos as involving coercion and assault and a Special Investigation Team has been constituted by the Karnataka government to probe the cases of sexual assault emerging from the sex videos.

The SIT arrested the JDS MLA and the father of the MP on May 4 after his anticipatory bail plea in a case of kidnapping of a victim of sexual assault by Prajwal Revanna was rejected by the special court. The victim was still missing on May 4 but was traced by the SIT on May 5.

The SIT told the special court on May 9 during a bail hearing for H D Revanna that the woman who was allegedly kidnapped on the instructions of H D Revanna on April 29, after the leak of pen drives with explicit videos of his son, was a victim of sexual assault by Prajwal Revanna.

She had worked for six years at the home of the accused and she was forcibly taken away on April 29 from her home by the MLA’s associates on the orders of the MLA, the state argued.

The defence counsel for H D Revanna argued that the case against the MLA did not attract the ingredients of IPC Section 364 A of kidnapping since no force was involved.

‘No materials have been produced’

“At this initial stage, it is pertinent to note that the victim has not given any statement against the petitioner (H D Revanna) herein,” the special court observed in its order.

“Though the SPP has argued at length with respect to the grounds which they had urged in their petition, at para-27, that the victim in her statement under Sec.161 Cr.P.C. had stated about reasonable apprehension of her survival and also threat to her life, no materials have been produced at this juncture, that the entire incident of abduction had taken place at the behest of petitioner herein,” the court said.

“Though it has been argued at length that the entire incident had taken place only to shield petitioner’s son who is accused of committing sexual assault, no materials have been found that the petitioner herein had indeed acted to shield his son,” the court observed.

SIT’s argument in court

The SIT told the court that the victim was held at a farm house at the instance of H D Revanna and a statement from a sister of the victim was produced as corroboratory evidence.

The SIT also produced the voluntary statement of Satish Babanna, a relative of H D Revanna, who was sent to call the victim to the farm house after videos of the alleged sexual assault by Prajwal Revanna emerged in the public domain. The SIT produced call logs of the phone of Satish Babanna to suggest he was sent by the JDS MLA to move the victim.

The kidnapping case against Revanna was registered after the victim’s son reportedly came across videos of the alleged sexual assault on his mother by Prajwal Revanna the Hassan MP which emerged in the public domain ahead of the April 26 Lok Sabha polls for the Hassan seat.

What victim’s son told police

The victim’s son told the police in a complaint that three to four days before the polls, Satish Babanna, a relative of the JDS MLA, who was known to the family of the victim, came to their house and requested his mother to accompany him and she returned on the date of the election.

According to the police complaint, Satish Babanna came to their house again on April 29 at about 9 pm and requested his mother to accompany him again as directed by H D Revanna, since a case had been lodged against her. She, however, did not return.

The next day, the son of the victim was informed about a viral video that was being circulated pertaining to the sexual assault on his mother. When the son reportedly requested Satish Babanna to send his mother back, he allegedly refused to do so.