Why Bengaluru court denied interim anticipatory bail to MLA HD Revanna

A special court in Bengaluru on Saturday denied interim anticipatory bail to Janata Dal (Secular) leader and Karnataka Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) HD Revanna in a kidnapping case registered against him..Additional City Civil and Sessions Judge Santhosh Gajanan Bhatt opined that since the victim in the case was yet to be traced, it would be inappropriate to grant interim anticipatory bail.."The court has to look in to the seriousness of the allegations levelled and also with all facts and circumstances of the case. Since the victim is yet to be traced, it would not be appropriate to admit the petitioner herein on interim anticipatory bail," the Court order stated..Senior Advocate Murthy D Naik for Revanna argued that there were so serious allegations against the leader in the kidnapping complaint filed by the victim's son. He further argued that the allegations against Prajwal Revanna could not be applied to HD Revanna. Additionally, he assured the Court that if Revanna was granted interim anticipatory bail, he would immediately appear for questioning before the special investigation team (SIT)..On the other hand, arguing for the SIT, Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) BN Jagadish said that the SIT officers were working tirelessly to trace the victim whose statement would bring the authenticity of the case to light. Hence, he sought rejection of Revanna's plea..After hearing arguments for about an hour and a half, the court reserved the order, and after two hours, rejected Revanna's bail application.Subsequently, HD Revanna was arrested on Saturday by the SIT from HD Deve Gowda's house..This is the second criminal case against him in recent days related to the sexual abuse allegations involving his son and Hassan Lok Sabha member Prajwal Revanna, who has bee summoned by an SIT.According to a report of The Hindu, HD Revanna was booked on the complaint alleging kidnapping of one of the victims of his son Prajwal Revanna.The news report said the victim worked as a house help at HD Revanna’s residence. Quoting Police sources, it said she was kidnapped to prevent her from testifying against Prajwal Revanna..HD Revanna filed the plea for pre-arrest bail in the fresh case on the same day he withdrew his anticipatory bail plea in a sexual abuse case after the SPP told the Special Court that the rape charge under Section 376 of Indian Penal Code has not been invoked against him.Since it was submitted that no non-bailable offences have been invoked against him in the sexual abuse case, his counsel sought permission to withdraw the plea with the liberty to file afresh in case of any need.The Court permitted the withdrawal.The sexual abuse allegations against son Prajwal Revanna emerged after over 2,900 videos depicting the sexual assault of several women were recently circulated on social media. The SIT led by senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer BK Singh is probing the case and has summoned Revanna. Amid the outrage, Revanna is said to have fled to Germany soon after the April 26 polls in Karnataka. However, in his first communication since the sexual assault allegations emerged, Prajwal Revanna last week via microblogging site, X (formerly Twitter) said that he was "not in Bangalore" and sought more time to appear before the SIT..[Read Order]