With pressure mounting on the JD(S) over the sexual assault and harassment allegations against their Hassan Member of Parliament, Prajwal Revanna, party leader and former Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy on Monday, April 29, said that anyone who has committed a mistake should be punished. “A Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been formed and is probing the case and anyone who commits a mistake will have to face the consequences as per the law of the land,” said Kumaraswamy. 

On April 28, a 47-year-old woman, had filed a complaint against Holenarsipura MLA HD Revanna and his son Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna accusing them of sexually harassing her and her daughter. The complaint comes days after accusations emerged that Prajwal Revanna has sexually assaulted numerous women and videographed them in Hassan district. HD Revanna is former prime minister HD Deve Gowda’s son, and Prajwal is Deve Gowda’s grandson. 

Addressing the media regarding the issue, Kumaraswamy, who is also the son of HD Deve Gowda, distanced himself and his family from the allegations and said that the videos doing the rounds have caused a great deal of embarrassment to his family.

“I ask the Congress leaders why are you bringing the family name into this, talk about the individual, this is not a family issue...this is the matter of Revanna's family, we have nothing to do with it. They live separately,” the JD(S) leader added. 

Kumaraswamy said that they are learning about the issue only now and that had they known earlier, they would have initiated a probe. “Do not drag Deve Gowda’s name into this. We respect women,” he reiterated. 

The allegations against Prajwal Revanna emerged after a women’s rights group filed a complaint with the State Women’s Commission, which then wrote to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and the state police chief seeking the constitution of a Special Investigative Team (SIT) to take up the case. The state government has now set up an SIT headed by Additional DG IGP BJ Singh which will investigate all complaints connected with this case

In the FIR filed on Sunday, April 28 at the Holenarsipura police station, Prajwal has been booked under sections 354A (sexual harassment), 354D (stalking), 506 (criminal intimindation), 509 (outraging the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). 

As per the FIR, the complainant woman worked in Revanna’s house as a domestic worker for three and a half years and alleged that she was sexually harassed between January 2019 and January 2022.