Prajwal Revanna has been sent to 6-day SIT custody in the obscene video case for which the special investigation team sought the suspended JD(S) MP’s custody for 14 days.
Prajwal was arrested late last night from Bengaluru airport as he arrived in India to join the SIT investigation after being incommunicado for a month as the allegations against him, his father surfaced and snowballed into a major political storm.
In this one month, he was suspended from the party, his father was arrested and then released on bail, and his grandfather former PM HD Deve Gowda made an appeal to him to come back to India and join th investigation.
The ministry of external affairs initiated the process of revoking his diplomatic passport on which he went to Germany a day before the issue surfaced. Prajwal has been accused of sexually assaulting several women and recording them.
In police custody, Prajwal’s lawyers will be allowed to meet him for one hour in the morning.
The 33-year-old contested the Lok Sabha election from Hassan, the seat that he won in 2019.
Prajwal’s advocate said the former was extending full cooperation to the SIT probe and cautioned against any media trial in the case. “Prajwal Revanna landed around 12.40-12:50 am from Germany’s Munich. As there was an arrest warrant against him, SIT accordingly arrested him and took him into custody and further legal procedures they will follow today,” Parameshwara said. Speaking to reporters here, he said, “…naturally he should have cooperated to the arrest. His immigration papers were cleared and he was brought out (of airport). As he had a diplomatic passport, things happened easily. After completing all the due process, he was arrested,” he added. Asked if the government will appeal to more victims to come forward following his arrest, Parameshwara said, “We have already said, those who have faced trouble from him to come forward and give complaints to SIT and police, and we will provide them all kind of protection. We will have to wait and see further developments.”
The SIT, sending out a message, deputed an all-woman police team to execute the warrant against Prajwal. Soon after he alighted from the plane from Munich, he was received by women in Khaki, sources in the SIT said. During the procedure of executing the arrest warrant, he was flanked by the women police personnel who were led by two IPS officers, Suman D Pennekar and Seema Latkar. He was then taken in a jeep in which only women police were present.
They took him to the CID office. “It was a conscious call to send women officers to arrest Prajwal, sending home a message that the JD(S) leader exploited his seat and power as an MP with women. The same women have authority to arrest him through all legal proceedings,” a source in the SIT said. There was also a symbolic message to the alleged victims that women officers were not afraid of anyone, the source added.
The MP was later taken for medical examination under tight security. Escorted by female police officials, he was taken to Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital here. The SIT is also contemplating a potency test on Prajwal. A potency test is done to ascertain if a rape accused is capable of committing sexual assault on victims. Meanwhile, Prajwal’s advocate, Arun G, met him here. “I went to speak to him.
He has told to the media that he has come forward to cooperate with the investigation. So he has requested that there be no media trial. Let there be no negative campaign unnecessarily,” Arun said. Speaking to reporters after meeting Prajwal, he said the Hassan MP is before the SIT to give the fullest cooperation. “Prajwal said — I have come forward, the whole purpose of me coming to Bengaluru or before SIT is that I have to stand by my words. I have come forward. I will give the fullest cooperation — these are his words,” he added. The advocate said he had explained to Prajwal about how the court procedures would work.
Prajwal had on May 29 filed an anticipatory bail plea at the Principal City and Sessions Court for Elected Representatives, which issued a notice to the SIT to file objections before posting the hearing for Friday.
In the first case registered against him at the Holenarasipura Town police station in Hassan on April 28, Prajwal is accused of sexually harassing a 47-year-old former maid. He is listed as accused number two, while his father and Holenarasipura MLA, H D Revanna, is accused number one. Prajwal has been so far booked in three cases of sexual assault. There are also charges of rape against him.
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Source: HT
