A Special Court for Elected Representatives on Monday granted bail to JD(S) MLA HD Revanna in connection with a kidnapping case.
The 66-year-old former minister was arrested by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on May 4 in an alleged case of abduction of a woman linked to allegations of sexual abuse of women by his son and Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna.
Special court judge Santhosh Gajanan Bhat heard the case and granted conditional bail to Revanna.
His three-day police custody ended on May 8, after which he was produced before the XVII Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court, which remanded him to seven days’ judicial custody till May 14.
The case was registered following a complaint by the woman’s son, who alleged that his mother was sexually abused by Revanna’s son Prajwal.
The woman was allegedly kidnapped to prevent her from testifying against Prajwal, police sources said.
The SIT has also secured custody of Revanna’s confidant Sathish Babanna in connection with the case.
The SIT arrested Babanna on May 3 and then reportedly rescued the woman from a farmhouse in Mysuru’s Hunsur taluk on May 4, hours before Revanna’s arrest from his father and former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda’s residence in Padmanabhanagar in Bengaluru.
While Revanna moved senior counsel CV Nagesh for his bail plea, special public prosecutor Jaina Kothari and additional public prosecutor Ashok Naik argued on behalf of SIT.
Nagesh alleged that there is a political conspiracy behind Revanna’s arrest and the victim recently said in a video that she was not kidnapped by Revanna or his family.
Kothari and Naik have countered this by saying: SIT has recorded statements under both CrPC sections 161 (interrogation of witnesses by police) and 164 (statements recorded by the magistrate) and the victim has given a statement against Revanna.
The proponents of the SIT also argued that the bail application was moved when the accused was already in custody and therefore the case cannot be maintained.
However, the judge disagreed with this argument and said… you can please argue the merits of the case.
Nagesh further added that the victim’s son had filed a complaint saying that his mother had not reached home and that she had gone with the known person on the motorcycle. How is this interpreted as kidnapping? It is not a case of kidnapping.”
Naik said the victim and her family have been threatened by the suspect and the victim needs police protection.
After a brief adjournment, Nagesh argued that the sections invoked by SIT are invalid and cited some previous court decisions on kidnapping cases.
Nagesh said, “SIT has not produced any evidence against my client to establish that he kidnapped the victim. There is no demand for money or valuables or any form of violence against the victim. 364A (kidnapping for ransom) can be these cannot be invoked.
He further added that the cases against Prajwal Revanna have nothing to do with Revanna and requested that his client Revanna be granted immediate bail.
He also addressed the SIT lawyers and asked, “Why are two special public prosecutors appearing for bail objection?”
Kothari, however, clarified that they are not repeating the argument and that one complements the other argument.
Later, Kothari asked the court to make further observations to refute Nagesh’s argument. But Nagesh objected to this saying, “If SIT gets another round of arguments, I should also get a chance to counter it.”
Kothari pointed out that there is some misinformation in Nagesh’s argument. “Victim is not a relative of HD Revanna as stated by CV Nagesh and 161 statements before the investigating officer were recorded on May 5 and not later.”
On this, Justice Bhat said, “In both the remand applications, 161 and 164 statements are submitted to the court.” SIT sought time to provide written documents in this regard but was rejected by the judge and he reserved the order at 5 pm on Monday and granted bail to Revanna.
33-year-old JD(S) MP Prajwal Revanna, grandson of JD(S) patriarch Deve Gowda, is accused of multiple cases of sexual abuse of women. The scandal has created a political storm, with the ruling Congress and the BJP-JD(S) locked in a slugfest.
Prajwal Revanna reportedly left the country on April 27, a day after the first phase of the Lok Sabha polls was held in Karnataka and an Interpol Blue Corner Notice was issued against him in an attempt to bring him back.
He was the joint candidate of the BJP-JD(S) alliance from the Hassan Lok Sabha segment, which went to polls in the first phase.
While the Congress government has formed an SIT to probe the cases, the BJP and JD(S) – NDA partners – have demanded that it be handed over to the CBI, and action be taken against those behind the spread of explicit videos.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been reworked by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
First print: May 14, 2024 | 1:29 am IST