Bengaluru:

A court on Monday granted bail to JD(S) MLA and former Karnataka Minister H D Revanna in a sexual assault case.

The 42nd Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court had previously granted interim relief to the 66-year-old politician. Judge Preeth J refused to hear objections from SIT and ordered bail.

The case, registered on April 28 at the Holenarasipura town police station, involves allegations of sexual assault by Revanna and his son, Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna, against a 47-year-old house help.

Prajwal Revanna reportedly left for Germany on April 27 and an arrest warrant has also been issued against him in the sexual assault case. Interpol has issued a Blue Corner Notice against Prajwal, who is on the run.

HD Revanna was arrested on May 4 and was remanded into four-day police custody. He was later sent into judicial custody. Towards the end of his judicial custody, he secured conditional bail from a special court for MPs and MLAs.

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

Bengaluru:

In more trouble for Karnataka MLA HD Revanna, he has been sent to judicial custody till May 14 after the Special Investigation Team’s custody in the case of allegedly kidnapping a woman ended on Wednesday.

The Janata Dal (Secular) leader is also, along with his son and Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna, an accused in the sex scandal that has rocked Karnataka and the nation and prompted an attack on his party as well as its ally, the BJP, from the Congress and other parties. 

The 66-year-old former minister, who is the son of former prime minister Deve Gowda, was arrested on Saturday by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) – set up to investigate the sex scandal – for kidnapping a woman who used to work as a help at his house last month. The case of kidnapping was filed by the woman’s son, who has also alleged that she was sexually assaulted by Prajwal Revanna. HD Revanna’s aide, Sathish Babanna, was also arrested along with him.

After his custody with the SIT ended, Mr Revanna was produced before the Special Court for Elected Representatives in Bengaluru, which remanded him in judicial custody till May 14.

The sex scandal had come to the fore a day after the Hassan Lok Sabha constituency – where Prajwal Revanna is a candidate – went to the polls on April 26. Videos began doing the rounds showing multiple women being sexually assaulted. Prajwal Revanna can also allegedly be seen sexually abusing women in some of the videos. 

The 33-year-old leader, who left for Germany the day the videos emerged, was later suspended by the JDS, which is contesting the Lok Sabha polls in an alliance with the BJP. A blue corner notice, which asks Interpol member states to help locate a person, has been issued against the MP.

Reacting to the attacks on the BJP-JDS alliance, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said there should be zero tolerance for someone like Prajwal Revanna and alleged that the Congress government had allowed the JDS MP to go out of the country. 

New Delhi:

JDS leader and Karnataka MLA HD Revanna – the son of former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda – was rushed to a hospital after he complained of uneasiness. He was taken to Victoria Hospital, a state-run hospital in Bengaluru, this evening.

The doctors are checking him and are yet to decide whether the JDS leader will be admitted or sent back with officials of the Special Investigation Team, or SIT, to its headquarters.

Mr Revanna is currently in the custody of the SIT for allegedly kidnapping a woman, who used to work as a help at his house earlier, on April 29. The woman was raped allegedly by his son and Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna, 33, who has been suspended by the JDS after the news of his alleged sex crimes broke.

The JDS leader was arrested after the kidnapped woman’s son, 20, filed a complaint, claiming that Mr Revanna’s close aide Sathish Babanna came to their home on April 29 and took his mother away on a two-wheeler, saying that the MLA wanted to see her.

The complainant said that Mr Babanna threatened the family with arrest if his mother “opened her mouth before the police”.

Later, he found out from a friend and a relative that his mother is among the women whose videos were in the pen drive and that it showed her being tied up and raped allegedly by Prajwal Revanna.

As he feared for his mother’s safety, the police arrested Sathish Babanna and rescued the woman from a farmhouse.

An FIR was subsequently filed based on the son’s complaint.

The SIT is also probing allegations of sexual abuse against Mr Revanna’s son Prajwal after a pen drive with a huge cache of explicit videos allegedly showing Prajwal Revanna sexually abusing several women surfaced and were widely shared.

“There is no evidence about the May 2 complaint. It’s a big political conspiracy… A conspiracy was hatched against me,” Mr Revanna told reporters after his arrest.