In the Prajwal Revanna sex scandal case, a total of 56 women were reportedly sexually assaulted allegedly by the JDS MP. Of these, four victims have courageously come forward to file complaints against him till date.
News18 has learned that three additional chargesheets will be filed against Prajwal by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), according to police sources. The SIT filed its first preliminary chargesheet against Prajwal and his father, H. D. Revanna, with the special court for elected representatives on 23 August. The remaining chargesheets are expected by the end of the month, said an officer involved in the investigation. Prajwal has been in SIT custody since 31 May 2024 and was remanded to judicial custody on 18 June.
During their investigation, the SIT found that the offences occurred while Prajwal was an MP from Hassan, between 2019 and 2021. The victims were mostly from Hassan or had a connection to the district, even if they were assaulted in Bengaluru.
An SIT official noted, “His targets were women from Hassan or those linked to it, as he believed he could control them if things went wrong.”
The SIT used technology and forensic techniques to analyse nearly 3,000 video clips and photographs documenting the alleged assaults. These videos were reportedly circulated on pen drives in Hassan, surfacing the same week the Lok Sabha elections took place on 7 May.
Prajwal, the grandson of former Prime Minister Deve Gowda and son of former Karnataka minister H. D. Revanna, is facing four FIRs. The Congress government in Karnataka set up an SIT on 28 April to investigate the alleged video clips of sexual abuse involving Prajwal, who had fled to Germany when the scandal broke. Four victims have recorded their statements with the SIT, including a housemaid who alleged she was raped despite being recorded promising to spare her.
Another JDS worker accused Prajwal of raping her in his official quarters in Hassan, recording the act, and blackmailing her into further sexual encounters between January 2021 and April 2024.
A homemaker seeking school admission for her son became the fourth woman to accuse Prajwal of sexual harassment. She filed an FIR ten days after his arrest on 31 May, following several complaints. She alleged that Prajwal had requested her phone number during a meeting about her son’s admission and soon began coercing her into virtual sex through video calls. This allegedly occurred 8 to 10 times between October 2019 and 2020, with threats to release the recordings if she refused.
A 2,144-page chargesheet, including statements from 150 witnesses, accuses H. D. Revanna of sexually harassing a domestic worker at his Holenarasipura home from 2019 to 2022. Prajwal is charged with raping the same woman at their Basavanagudi residence in Bengaluru. The chargesheet further alleges that Prajwal coerced the woman’s daughter to undress during video calls, which he secretly recorded. In an FIR filed on 28 April with Holenarasipura police, H. D. Revanna is listed as the first accused, followed by Prajwal.
H. D. Revanna has also been charged with sexual harassment under Section 354 of the Indian Penal Code. He was arrested on 4 May and later released on bail. One of the survivors, a housemaid, was allegedly kidnapped and held captive at a Revanna family farmhouse. She escaped and filed a statement accusing H. D. Revanna of abduction to silence her. He was arrested on 5 May for the kidnapping, becoming the first family member of former Prime Minister Deve Gowda to be jailed. Bhavani, Revanna’s wife and Prajwal’s mother, is also accused of involvement in the abduction.
A senior SIT officer said, “The SIT conducted a comprehensive investigation, interrogating over 150 witnesses and recording statements under Section 164 of the CrPC.” He added that Prajwal filmed the assaults on his personal mobile phone but later destroyed the electronic evidence.
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