Prajwal Revanna 'sex abuse' allegations: Gag order to warning letter ...

There are several key persons from Hassan, including friends-turned-foes and political rivals of Prajwal, who are likely to be investigated as part of the process to establish that the videos are genuine and not morphed, as is being claimed by the MP and his close associates.

One of the earliest public references to the videos was made by Prajwal himself in an original suit that he moved in a Bengaluru civil court on June 1, 2023 against 86 media outlets and three private persons.

The suit against the media sought a gag order (which was granted on June 2, 2023) on the grounds that “there is a threat of broadcasting, publishing and circulating such fake news, morphed photographs/video against the plaintiff by the defendants”.

One of the three private persons named among the 89 defendants in the suit was Prajwal’s former driver, who had quit the service of the Revanna family in March 2023 after working for nearly seven years.

Congress workers burn effigy of JDS leader Prajwal Revanna during a protest in Bengaluru. (Express Photo by Jitendra M)

There is speculation that the driver, who was considered a member of the family and had access to Prajwal’s phones and electronic devices, fell out with the MP in 2023 and began threatening him over the videos.

In December 2023, the driver filed a police complaint in Hassan alleging that he and his wife had been kidnapped by Prajwal and his mother after he failed to agree to hand over 13 acres of land.

The second instance where the videos were raised in public was in January 2024, in Hassan, by an advocate and local BJP leader G Devaraje Gowda, whose plea in the Karnataka High Court had led to the disqualification of Prajwal as an MP in 2023 (this was stayed by the Supreme Court).

Devaraje had also contested from Holenarasipura in the 2023 Karnataka Assembly elections and lost to Prajwal’s father, H D Revanna.

“Revanna is calling me a dirty fellow. It is his son who is a dirty fellow. His obscene pictures are part of a case he has filed in court (for the media gag order in June 2023). He has obtained a stay. Let him produce any videos of me sleeping with women. I go back to my family every day,” he said at a press conference in Hassan in January.

Devaraje claimed he got access to the videos after he began representing Prajwal’s former driver in a case filed against the Revannas in December 2023.

Congress workers stage protest against JDS leader Prajwal Revanna in Bengaluru. (Express Photo by Jitendra M)

“It was from (the driver) who I was representing that I came to know about the videos and pictures of Revanna’s son. I do not know how he got the videos,” he told The Indian Express.

The driver, however, denied all knowledge of the videos at a press conference in Hassan in January.

Devaraje also claimed that he considered bringing some of the women victims before the media but later backtracked as it involved their dignity and self-respect in a small town.

“Out of respect for the women, I did not release the videos. It would have caused a calamity in their homes. Who would be held responsible if the women committed suicide?” he said.

He also claimed he had written to the state BJP chief, B Y Vijayendra, not to give the Hassan Lok Sabha ticket to Prajwal under the JDS-BJP alliance. “A very serious issue is another pen drive. All these videos and documents are already in the hands of the national leaders of the Congress,” he had written.

Devaraje has also claimed on several occasions that the release of the videos will lead to the eventual merger of JD(S) with BJP without the presence of the Revanna family. Within the family, there are said to be differences between Deve Gowda’s sons – former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy and H D Revanna.

The videos were distributed through hundreds of pen drives in Hassan a day ahead of the April 26 Lok Sabha polls. These reportedly contain more than 2,900 videos, allegedly recorded by the MP himself. The videos also made their way to social media and sharing applications.

The state government took cognizance of the pen drives after the chairperson of the state women’s commission, Nagalakshmi Chaudhury, wrote to the state police chief and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

“In Hassan, pen drives are being distributed containing obscene videos of women. It is now circulating on social media. This is most distressing and there are hundreds of women in the videos. The women’s commission has also received a pen drive and there is a complaint as well,” the chairperson said last week.

“Based on the complaint, we have written to the state police chief and the Hassan Superintendent of Police, saying that… the videos seem to have been recorded under duress, and the persons who have recorded the video and distributed the videos must be given strict punishment. I have written to the Chief Minister to constitute a Special Investigation Team to bring the accused to book at the earliest. This is a very shameful incident for the country,” she said.

The Karnataka government ordered the formation of an SIT on April 27 to probe the videos. Prajwal, meanwhile, left the country for a tour of Europe soon after the April 26 polls for 14 South Karnataka Lok Sabha seats, including Hassan.

“He has not run away; he has gone on a pre-planned tour. He will face the probe. He did not know an FIR was going to be filed and an SIT would be constituted by the government,” his father said Monday.