The Karnataka Police on Thursday filed a second first information report against Janata Dal (Secular) leader and former state minister HD Revanna for allegedly abducting a woman who claims to have been raped by his son, Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna, reported The Hindu.
The woman, who worked at the Revanna household three years ago, had allegedly been abducted to prevent her from testifying against Prajwal Revanna, The Hindu said quoting unidentified police officials.
The report was filed based on a complaint by the woman’s son in Mysuru district on the night of May 2. In his complaint, the man alleged that his mother is one of the women in the videos of alleged sexual abuse by Prajwal Revanna that had come to light last week.
He said that a man named Satish Babanna, a close aide of the Revanna family, had come to their house on the night of April 29 and coerced his mother into accompanying him. Since then the family of the woman has not been able to contact her.
“Babanna dropped my mother at our house on the morning of the polling [April 26],” the complaint said. “He told my parents not to tell anything to the police if they came to our house. He threatened us that we will be booked in a case and told us to alert him if the police came by.”
The man also alleged that Babbana threatened them and said that if his mother is caught by the police, a case would be registered and they would go to jail. “He claimed that HD Revanna had told him to bring my mother to him,” the complaint said according to The Hindu. “He forced my mother into accompanying him on his bike.”
The development comes ahead of the hearing of an anticipatory bail plea by HD Revanna in the Special Court for People’s Representatives in Bengaluru on Friday, reported the newspaper.
On April 28, HD Revanna and Prajwal Revanna were booked by the Karnataka Police for sexual harassment and criminal intimidation. The first information report was based on a complaint by a woman, who worked in the Revanna household for three-and-a-half years.
The woman accused the former minister of sexual harassment whenever his wife was not at home. She also accused Prajwal Revanna of inappropriately touching women workers in the house.
This came after the Congress government in Karnataka on April 27 announced that a special investigation team will probe the case of “obscene videos” allegedly involving the Hassan MP.
Prajwal Revanna, the grandson of former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, is also the Janata Dal (Secular)’s Lok Sabha candidate from Hassan. HD Revanna is the party MLA from Holenarasipur. The Janata Dal (Secular) is part of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance.
Prajwal Revanna, is believed to be in the city of Munich in Germany, where he flew to between April 27 and April 28 using his diplomatic passport. He has been suspended from the party.
The Karnataka government has issued a lookout notice for him after he failed to appear before the Special Investigation Team looking into the allegations of sexual abuse against him.
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