The special court in Bengaluru has framed charges against former Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna for sexually assaulting a farm labourer who worked for his family.
The special court to hear criminal cases involving current or former elected representatives in Karnataka framed the charges on April 3, under sections 376(2)(k) (raping a woman over whom one has control or power), 376 (2)(n) (repeatedly raping the same woman), 354 A (sexual harassment), 354 B (disrobing a woman), 354 C (voyeurism), 506 (criminal intimidation), and 201 (destruction of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code and 66E (violation of privacy) of the Information Technology Act.
Prajwal Revanna has been accused of sexually assaulting five women in Hassan district and recording the alleged assaults. The assaults became known in April last year, a week ahead of the Parliamentary elections, when video clips and photos from the recordings of the alleged assaults began surfacing on social media. The state government constituted a Special Investigation Team to probe the case.
One of the women who accused Prajwal, grandson of former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, of assault is Mridula*, a farmhand who worked at the family farmhouse in Gannikada.
She alleged that Prajwal had lured her into his room at the farmhouse on the pretext of asking her to bring him water and then assaulted her. He allegedly assaulted her again after that at the family house in Basavanagudi in Bengaluru.
The SIT has filed multiple chargesheets against him. He had applied for bail but it was rejected by the trial court, and later by the Karnataka High Court and the Supreme Court.
He has now applied for bail again in the Karnataka High Court, on the grounds that there is a stay order in favour of the co-accused and that chargesheets against him have already been filed. The Court said that there appeared to be cogent evidence against Prajwal and posted the matter for April 15.
Read: Silenced by fear: Survivors reveal years of abuse in the Revanna household