HD Revanna moves Court for anticipatory bail in sexual abuse case

Janata Dal (Secular) leader and Karnataka legislative assembly member HD Revanna has moved the Special Court for anticipatory bail in the sexual abuse case involving his son and Hassan Lok Sabha member Prajwal Revanna..Additional City Civil and Sessions Judge of the Bengaluru court issued notice to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the allegations and listed the matter for hearing on May 3."Considering the submissions made at bar and also by looking into the facts of the case it would be appropriate to request the learned PP to take notice for the respondent. At this juncture, the learned Senior Counsel has fairly submitted that a Special Public Prosecutor has been appointed in the above case. The submission is taken on record and accordingly, the learned SPP is requested to take notice for respondent and also the petitioners are permitted to serve a copy to him," the Court said in the order.The JD(S) leader moved the Court after he received a notice from the SIT..Senior Counsel Murthy D Naik, representing HD Revanna, told the Court that they have filed an interim bail application along with the plea for anticipatory bail.The Court was also informed that though the offences alleged against HD Revanna were bailable in nature, SIT has now sought the permission of the jurisdictional court to invoke the rape charge as well in the case."However, the permission accorded by the learned JMFC Court is yet to be obtained," the Court was told..The sexual abuse allegations against Prajwal Revanna emerged after over 2,900 videos depicting the sexual assault of several women were recently circulated on social media. As per reports, these videos surfaced days before the Lok Sabha polls were held in Karnataka and involved the sexual abuse of several women by Prajwal Revanna. Amid the outrage and political storm that followed, Revanna is said to have fled to Germany soon after the April 26 polls. Revanna is also reported to have secured a media gag order from a trial court in Bengaluru last year to restrain the publication of the videos, which he claimed were fake and morphed.After the videos resurfaced, JD (S) suspended Revanna from the political party..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. The criminal case was registered on a complaint filed by one of the victims. The SIT led by senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer BK Singh is probing the case and has summoned Revanna. However, in his first communication since the sexual assault allegations emerged, Prajwal Revanna on Wednesday via microblogging site, X (formerly Twitter) said that he was "not in Bangalore" and sought more time to appear before the SIT.His lawyers wrote to the SIT seeking seven days' time for Revanna to appear before the investigating authority..Additional State Public Prosecutor BN Jagadeesha has been appointed as a Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) to prosecute the case.