New Delhi:

BJP leader G Devaraje Gowda was late Friday taken into custody in connection with a sexual assault case. He was taken into custody near Hiriyur while he was traveling from Bengaluru toward Chitradurga, police said.

A case of sexual harassment was registered against Devaraje Gowda on a complaint by a 36-year-old woman, who alleged that he molested her on the pretext of helping her sell her property.

Gowda, who contested the 2023 Karnataka assembly election against Prajwal’s father and Holenarasipura MLA HD Revanna, is also accused of leaking videos of JD(S) MP Prajwal Revanna’s alleged sexual abuse of several women. He, however, has blamed the Congress for leaking the videos.

Gowda had also alerted the BJP leadership last year about Prajwal Revanna’s alleged sexual abuse and asked the party not to give a Lok Sabha ticket to the JD(S) leader from Hassan. The BJP, which formed an alliance with the JD(S) last year, however, decided to field Prajwal from Hassan.

The sex scandal had come to the fore a day after the Hassan Lok Sabha constituency went to the polls on April 26. Videos began doing the rounds showing multiple women being sexually assaulted. The 33-year-old politician can also allegedly be seen sexually abusing women in some of the videos. 

Prajwal Revanna, who is the grandson of former prime minister and JD(S) supremo HD Deve Gowda, left for Germany the day the videos emerged, and was later suspended by the JD(S). A blue corner notice, which asks Interpol member states to help locate a person, has been issued against him.

Three FIRs, including charges of rape, molestation, intimidation, blackmailing, and threatening, have been registered against him.

His father, HD Revanna, is currently in jail on charges of kidnapping a woman, a mother of three.

Chitradurga, Karnataka:

BJP leader and Advocate G Devaraje Gowda was arrested Friday night in connection with an explicit video allegedly belonging to Hassan JD(S) MP Prajwal Revanna.

According to police, Devaraje Gowda was arrested at Gulihal toll gate by the Hiriyur Police in Chitradurga district for leaking the video in a pen drive.

He was arrested on a tip-off received by the Hassan Police, which wanted his presence for the case.

Several explicit videos involving Prajwal started making the rounds ahead of the first phase of Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka, which will take place on April 26.

The MP, a grandson of former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, is absconding and a ‘blue corner’ notice has been issued against him by the Interpol.

Three FIRs, including charges of rape, molestation, intimidation, blackmailing, and threatening, have been registered against Prajwal.

Devaraje Gowda is accused of leaking these videos, which he has categorically rejected.

He had contested the 2023 assembly election against JD(S) MLA from Holenarasipura HD Revanna.

HD Revanna, father of Prajwal, is at present in jail on charges of kidnapping a woman, a mother of three.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)