Prajwal Revanna moves Bengaluru court for anticipatory bail in sexual abuse case

Member Parliament (MP) and Suspended Janata Dal (Secular) leader Prajwal Revanna, who has evaded arrest for weeks now in the sexual abuse case against him, has moved a Bengaluru Court for anticipatory bail in three cases connected to the sexual abuse allegations against him. .The Court on Wednesday issued notice to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) which is probing the allegations against Revanna, who had fled the country soon after over 2,900 videos depicting the sexual assault of several women were circulated on social media.The counsel representing Revanna told the Court that he would make submissions on Revanna's interim bail applications first."Accordingly, call on 31.05.2024," the Court ordered..According to news reports, Revanna is expected to return to India today and the investigating agency plans to arrest him in the case.He had released a video on Monday that he would return to India. Karnataka government had earlier written to the Centre for cancelling the MP's diplomatic passport. .On April 28, a first information report (FIR) was registered against Prajwal Revanna and his father HD Revanna under Sections 354A (sexual harassment), 354D (stalking), 506 (criminal intimidation), and 509 (insult to modesty of woman) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at the Holenaraseepur town police station, Hassan district. On May 01, a rape case was registered against Prajwal Revanna on the complaint of a Panchayat member who alleged that the accused had raped her and recorded it on a mobile phone.Another rape case was registered against Prajwal Revanna on May 05 on the complaint of a house help who accused the lawmaker of sexual abuse..Prajwal Revanna, who is Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA)'s Lok Sabha candidate in the ongoing General Elections, in the bail pleas has claimed that he is innocent and has tenable defence to counter the allegations."The petitioner having participate in the election process on 26.04.2024, left the Country as he had already planned. However, a smear campaign was orchestrated against the petitioner and his father and eventually it resulted in filing of a false cases against petitioner and his father. Hence, the legal process is abused to cause trouble to the petitioner and for that reason petitioner prays to allow the present petition," his plea states.He has also claimed that the cases against him have been registered for political mileage in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. On his failure to cooperate with the investigating agency, Prajwal Revanna has claimed that "due to the smear campaign and misuse of power by State", he was disturbed and distressed,"He went under the dilemma to take further steps and it took some days to gather himself. The petitioner decided to pursue his legal rights and come out clean and was advised to take steps to protect the legal rights of the petitioner," his plea states.