Prajwal Revanna case: All accused part of 'Revanna Republic', State tells Karnataka High Court

The State of Karnataka on Monday vehemently opposed the bail applications filed by the accused persons in the case of kidnapping of woman who was allegedly sexually assaulted by former Janata Dal-Secular MP Prajwal Revanna..The State said that the accused were all part of the “Revanna Republic”, alluding to the fact that all accused were related, either by blood or by party affiliation.“The victim is the only one who falls outside of the clan of Revanna Republic. All others are related by blood, marriage, or by party affiliation,” said Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) and Senior Counsel Professor Ravivarma Kumar.Kumar made his submissions before single-judge Justice M Nagaprasanna who was hearing a batch of petitions filed by six persons accused of kidnapping or conspiring to kidnap the victim..The SPP went on to say that the case had been thoroughly investigated, and there was adequate evidence against the accused. There exist no grounds for grant of bail, Kumar argued. He also said that in the 40 years that he had been a lawyer, he had never witnessed a crime of such nature and that is why the “State government had had to constitute a Special Investigation Team.”.Justice Nagaprasanna however, said that the Court was at present dealing only with the bail applications and not going into the merits of the case.The Court heard the parties and reserved orders..The accused persons, Sathish Babanna, H K Sujay, H N Madhu, HD Manu Gowda, ST Keerthi and KA Rajagopal, approached the High Court after a special court rejected their bail applications in June this year..On Monday, the State said that this was “not a fit case for grant of bail.”“All of them absconded the moment that A 2 was arrested. Their names were not in the FIR yet, yet they ran. Unless something was suspicious, why should they have run? They have all been investigated thoroughly. There are no loose ends,” SPP Kumar told the Court.He also argued that the SIT had already filed a chargesheet in the case, a copy of which was submitted before the High Court..Justice Nagaprasanna said he had seen the chargesheet.“Even in the strongest cases of cybercrimes, chargesheets are not drawn with such clarity,” the judge said before reserving orders..Prajwal Revanna’s father HD Revanna and mother Bhavani Revanna and six associates of the family have been charged with the kidnapping of the victim in the case.