Bengaluru: A Bengaluru court on Monday granted conditional bail to Janata Dal (Secular) leader HD Revanna in kidnapping case linked to sexual abuse charges against son Prajwal.
The bail was granted days after the former Karnataka minister was sent to judicial custody till May 14 in the case related to the kidnapping of a woman. The court asked him to furnish a bond of Rs 500,000 and told him to cooperate with the investigation among other conditions. Revanna, the son of former prime minister and JD(S) patriarch HD Deve Gowda, was booked for the purported abduction of a woman on April 29, as per a complaint filed by her son.
The Karnataka government has constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the case following a complaint by the State Commission for Women chairperson Nagalakshmi Chowdhary. The JD(S) leadership has suspended Prajwal from the party.
Prajwal Revanna, the grandson of Deve Gowda, is facing charges of sexually abusing several women. The scandal has raised a political storm with the ruling Congress and BJP-JD(S) engaged in a slug fest. Prajwal is said to have flown abroad on April 27, a day after the first phase of Lok Sabha polls in Karnataka was held.
He was BJP-JD(S) alliance's joint candidate from Hassan Lok Sabha segment, which went to polls in the first phase. On Sunday, the Karnataka SIT arrested two persons in connection with the leak and circulation of explicit videos involving the Hassan MP.
Siddaramaiah rules out CBI probe
Meanwhile, Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah has ruled out transfer of the probe into sexual abuse charges against Prajwal to the CBI. He said he reposed faith in the Special Investigation Team of the state police, which is investigating the case.
Questioning BJP’s locus standi to make such a demand, he asked the opposition party as to why it doesn’t trust the police. He also hit out at the saffron party for making misleading statements aimed at causing confusion in the minds of the people about SIT, which is conducting a “fair probe”.
“We are getting the probe done by our police (SIT), we have belief and faith in our police. They are efficient,” Siddaramaiah said in response to a question on BJP demanding a CBI probe. He said, “It’s not that I don’t have faith in CBI, the cases that need be handed over to CBI will be given. When I was the chief minister earlier, I had given seven cases to CBI, but there was no conviction even in a single case... that doesn’t mean I don't have faith in CBI... SIT is also an investigating agency like CBI, we will get the probe done by our police.”
