The Karnataka Police has arrested Janata Dal (Secular) MLC Suraj Revanna, who is the brother of Prajwal Revanna, for allegedly sexually assaulting a party worker, reported The Indian Express on Sunday.
Prajwal Revanna, the former MP from the Hassan Lok Sabha constituency, is currently in judicial custody on charges of having raped several women.
Suraj Revanna’s arrest came a day after he was booked on a complaint of sexual assault by 27-year-old Chethan KS, who works with the party’s youth wing.
The police had on Saturday filed a first information report in the case under provisions of the Indian Penal Code pertaining to unnatural sex (section 377), criminal intimidation (section 506), wrongful confinement (section 342) and common intention (section 34).
Chethan’s complaint to the police had claimed that Suraj Revanna sexually assaulted him on June 16 at a farmhouse in Hassan district’s Gannikada, India Today reported. Subsequently, he claimed, Suraj Revanna’s associates attempted to offer him money to keep mum about the incident.
The complaint also alleged that Suraj Revanna had threatened to kill Chethan’s family, reported The Indian Express.
Suraj Revanna has denied the allegations, calling them politically motivated.
On the other hand, Chethan has also been booked on a complaint of extortion by Shivakumar, a close aide of Suraj Revanna. Shivakumar’s complaint alleged that Chethan was trying to extort Rs 5 crore from Suraj Revanna by threatening to implicate him in a false sexual assault case.
The arrest of Suraj Revanna comes days after a Bengaluru court sent Prajwal Revanna to judicial custody till June 24 on charges of rape. The court issued the order after the Karnataka Police’s special investigation team probing the case did not seek Prajwal Revanna’s further custody.
Prajwal Revanna was arrested on May 31 after he returned to Bengaluru from Germany, where he had fled on April 26. He had suspended from the Janata Dal (Secular) on April 30.
Soon after he had left for Germany, Prajwal Revanna and his father, former state minister HD 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 had worked in the Revanna household for three-and-a-half years and claimed to have been sexually assaulted by Prajwal Revanna.
According to a first information report based on a complaint by the woman’s son, she had been allegedly abducted to prevent her from testifying against Prajwal Revanna.
HD Revanna was arrested in connection with the case on May 4 but was released on bail ten days later. His wife, Bhavani Revanna, had been summoned by the police in connection with the case on June 1. The Karnataka High Court granted her regular anticipatory bail on June 7.
This came soon after videos of several women being sexually assaulted, allegedly recorded by Prajwal Revanna himself, began to be widely circulated in his former constituency ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. So far, three women have filed complaints of rape or sexual assault against Prajwal Revanna.
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