SIT files 2,144-page chargesheet in first of multiple rape cases against former JDS MP Prajwal Revanna

The current case, in which a chargesheet has been filed by the SIT, is connected to an FIR registered by the Holenarasipura Town police on April 28, 2024. This FIR concerns the sexual harassment of a cook and her daughter by Prajwal Revanna and his father, JDS MLA H D Revanna. The charge of rape was added against Prajwal Revanna based on a statement made by the victim in court.

Apart from the victim and her daughter, two other victims of sexual harassment by the former MP are witnesses in the chargesheet filed by the SIT on Friday. “A comprehensive 2,144-page charge sheet against Prajwal Revanna was submitted to the Special People’s Court in Bangalore,” the CID police’s Special Investigation Team stated in an official statement on Friday.

Charges against Prajwal Revanna, his father H D Revanna

Prajwal Revanna has been charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including sexual assault (376, 376(2)(k)), sexual harassment (354, 354(2), 354(6)), causing the disappearance of evidence (201), criminal intimidation (506), insulting the modesty of a woman (509), and under section 66(E) of the Information Technology Act for violation of privacy.

The MP’s father, H D Revanna, a JDS MLA, has also been chargesheeted in the case for sexual harassment of the victim under section 354 of the Indian Penal Code. H D Revanna was arrested on May 4 and subsequently obtained bail. Prajwal Revanna has been incarcerated since his arrest on May 31.

“The SIT conducted a comprehensive investigation of the case, interrogated more than 150 witnesses, and recorded the statements of the victims and witnesses under Section 164 of the CrPC, the place, and location of the crimes,” the SIT said after filing the chargesheet.

Forensic and scientific evidence, including digital evidence, has been collected and verified through experts to establish the cases against the former MP, police said.

The victim, who was appointed as a cook at a local school on the recommendation of Prajwal Revanna’s family, was also employed as a domestic worker at the home of the Revannas from 2019 to 2022. Prajwal Revanna is alleged to have assaulted the woman in a Bengaluru residence belonging to the family and sexually harassed her in Hassan.

The sexual assault in Bengaluru was allegedly recorded by Prajwal Revanna on his phone. The then MP is alleged to have threatened to destroy the victim’s family using the video if she disclosed the attack to anyone, as stated in her legal statement.

The former MP is also alleged to have made video calls to the victim’s daughter, sexually harassed her, and captured images of the harassment on his phone. Prajwal Revanna is also accused of using his position of power to similarly sexually assault three other women who have been named as witnesses in the Holenarasipura case.

‘Destroyed electronic evidence’

“He filmed all the acts on the mobile phone he was using at that time,” the SIT stated, adding that investigations had revealed “that he had destroyed the electronic evidence in the phones.” While the former MP allegedly recorded the sexual assaults on his mobile phone, the recordings captured private parts and the identity of the victims but did not reveal the face of the perpetrator of the assaults.

The SIT has utilized insights from two scientific papers from Turkey and Japan published in forensic science journals on the identification of perpetrators of sexual crimes. This was done by comparing images from video recordings of assaults with the physical characteristics of the private parts of the suspect by medical experts to strengthen the evidence against Prajwal Revanna.

Since Prajwal Revanna’s arrest on May 31, a panel of doctors at the Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Medical College and Research Centre in Bengaluru has conducted separate comparative medical analyses of the features of the suspect’s private parts with those seen in the videos of each of the three incidents of alleged sexual assault for which he has been booked.

Leaving the country and arrest after returning from Germany

Prajwal Revanna left the country on April 27, 2024, shortly after the second phase of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, and after videos of alleged sexual assaults surfaced in public. He was arrested on May 31 at the Bengaluru airport upon his return from Germany.

Three cases of sexual assault of women and one of sexual harassment have been filed against him by the SIT. Chargesheets are yet to be filed by the SIT in two cases of sexual assault and the one case of sexual harassment.

In a second case of rape registered on May 1, based on a complaint by a former zilla panchayat member in Hassan, the former MP is accused of sexually assaulting her for over three years and recording videos of the act, which he allegedly used to blackmail her.

The third FIR was filed on May 8, where Prajwal Revanna was accused of rape by a woman who was employed as a worker at his family’s home. The FIR was registered by the SIT after the kidnapped woman was rescued on May 5 from a farmhouse near Mysuru, where she was allegedly kept by Prajwal’s father, JDS MLA H D Revanna, and his associates. She provided a statement to the police about being sexually attacked by the MP while employed by his family for six years.

A separate case of sexual harassment has also been filed against Prajwal Revanna, who has been in prison since his arrest in the first case on May 31.