New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ally Janata Dal (Secular) has suspended its sitting MP and Lok Sabha candidate from Hassan Prajwal Revanna after the Congress government in Karnataka instituted a special investigation team (SIT) to probe allegations of sexual abuse against him. The probe was launched on a complaint sent to the government by the chairperson of Karnataka State Commission for Women Dr Nagalakshmi Chowdhary.
Prajwal Revanna is the grandson of JD(S) supremo and former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda.
Former chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, Prajwal’s uncle, told media persons Tuesday that the one-time MP from Hassan would remain suspended until the SIT completes its probe.
Prajwal embarked on a ‘pre-planned’ tour to Germany after the Hassan seat went to the polls on 26 April.
Through his election agent, Prajwal has also lodged a complaint with the authorities that the “doctored” videos were being circulated to tarnish his image during the elections.
Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar has said people were “hanging their heads in shame” and that what Revanna did was “an unpardonable crime”. “He is an MP and the grandson of a former prime minister. He represented the same constituency which the former prime minister had represented,” Shivakumar, also the state Congress chief, told reporters.
The state government has said the SIT probe will bring to account those who perpetrated the sexual crimes, and those who filmed the acts and made the videos public..
An FIR has already been filed at the Holenarasipur police station under sections 354(A) (sexual harassment), 354(D) (stalking), and 506 (criminal intimidation), and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code in this regard.
On Monday, Kumaraswamy said there was no question of defending his nephew over the sexual abuse allegations and that the party would take “merciless action” if the SIT proved the charges. He also strongly objected to the names of his father H.D. Deve Gowda, being drawn into the controversy. “I want to ask Congress leaders, why bring family into it? Discuss about the individual. An individual and his deeds are in question here, not the family,” he said.
Also read: Karnataka sets up SIT to probe ‘obscene videos’ case involving Deve Gowda’s grandson Prajwal Revanna