Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna who has been suspended from the JD(S) amid allegations of sexual abuse
| Photo Credit: File photo
In the rape case registered against Prajwal Revanna in Bengaluru on May 1, a 44-year-old political worker has accused the Hassan MP of raping her in his official quarters in Hassan city in 2021.
The complainant told the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) that the JD(S) leader allegedly threatened to kill her and her husband if she did not cooperate before raping her at the MP quarters in Hassan city in 2021. She alleged that Prajwal Revanna recorded the sexual act on his phone and was blackmailing her with the footage, forcing her to have sex with him multiple times between January 1, 2021, and April 25, 2024.
In her complaint, the woman claimed that she had not complained fearing for her life and that of husband’s. She registered a complaint in Bengaluru on May 1 with the CID after a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was set up by the government of Karnataka to investigate alleged multiple instances of sexual abuse by Prajwal Revanna.
Prajwal Revanna has been booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code., including Section 376 (2) (n) for “committing rape repeatedly on the same woman”, Section 354 (B) for “assault or use of criminal force to woman with intent to disrobe”, Section 354 (C) for ‘capturing the image of a woman in a private act against her will’, and various sections of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
The complainant’s version of what happened with Prajwal Revanna
In her complaint, the woman claimed to met Prajwal Revanna, MP of Hassan, in 2021 seeking seats for some women students in a hostel.
“The MP was in a hurry and did not meet me. He asked me to come back the next day. Next day, when I went to the MP quarters in Hassan town, it was full of visitors. His staff told me to wait on the first floor where women were there. Prajwal Revanna spoke with everyone. As they left one by one, I was alone with him. He called me to his room. I went in. He locked the room, to which I resisted. He told me to advise my husband to lie low politically. He told me to strip, to which I said I will scream for help. He claimed to have a gun, and that he would finish both me and my husband if I did not cooperate. He held my hand and forced himself on me, despite me resisting,” she alleged in her complaint.
She added that Prajwal Revanna took out his mobile phone and recorded the sexual act of raping her. “He told me that he would keep the video and would make it public if I told of the sexual abuse to anyone. He told me that his face was not visible in the video and that only I was visible. He told me that I had to have sex with him whenever he called, now that he had the video. He used to make video calls to me and tell me to strip, and harassed me. He has sexually assaulted me multiple times in these years, blackmailing me that he would make the video public,” she alleged.