Gujarat ATS detains activist Teesta Setalvad in Mumbai, day after SC upholds SIT clean chit to Modi

Bengaluru: In a shocking revelation, a former member of Hassan Zilla Panchayat (ZP) has accused incumbent JD(S) MP Prajwal Revanna of raping her multiple times over three years and videographing the alleged crime.

A case was registered by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) based on the statement by the 44-year-old survivor on Wednesday, May 1.

According to the First Information Report (FIR), the woman claimed that when she was a ZP member she used to visit the MLAs and MPs for various development works.

In one such instance in 2021, she met Prajwal seeking his help to get hostel seats for some female students at a local college. The woman, in her statement, said that since the MP was busy, she was asked to meet him the next day.

“The following day I visited the MP at his office and the MP's quarters in Hassan. The staff present there told me to wait on the first floor as there were many others in the hall. Prajwal spoke to some of the women waiting there, spoke with them and sent them off until I was the only one left,” the woman alleged.

As per the survivor, the MP then called her inside a room and she obliged.

“He held my hand, pulled me inside and locked the door. When I asked him why was he closing the door, he told me nothing would happen and made me sit on the bed. He said my husband should talk less and warned me of the consequences. He also said that because of my husband, his mother, Bhavani Revanna, missed the MLA ticket. He told me that if my husband wants to grow politically, I should listen to him [Prajwal],” the woman alleged.

Next, Prajwal allegedly told the woman to lie down on the bed and undress. When the woman refused and said that she would shout, Prajwal allegedly threatened her that he had a gun and warned of dire consequences for her and her husband.

The woman alleged that Prajwal took out his mobile phone and then raped her.

“He raped me and sexually assaulted me and recorded the act on his mobile phone,” the woman alleged. “He threatened to leak the video if I ever spoke about it and told me to be there whenever he wanted. After that, he used to video call me frequently, ask me to be naked during the call and raped me in multiple instances.”

The woman claimed that she was scared and did not make the incident public and chose to come forward after she learnt of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up by the Karnataka government to probe the alleged Hassan sex scandal.

A case was registered under Sections 376(2)(n) (commits rape repeatedly on the same woman), 506 (criminal intimidation), 354A(1)(physical contact and advances involving unwelcome and explicit sexual overtures), 354B (assault or use of criminal force to woman with intent to disrobe) and 354C (voyeurism) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and 66E (violation of privacy) of the Information Technology (IT) Act.

Prajwal is also accused in a sexual harassment case along with his father, Holenarasipur MLA HD Revanna, registered at the Holenarasipur police station in Hassan on April 28. 

At least 900 protesters have been arrested since the launch of pro-Palestinian demonstrations on university campuses across the US, where students are raging against the Israeli regime’s US-backed genocidal war on Gaza.

The Washington Post reported the tally on Sunday, the 10th straight day of the protests that began after Columbia University set up an encampment to demand cessation of the war and press the school to divest from Israeli financial interests.

The crackdown then started when university authorities called in the police, a move that sparked more than 100 arrests on the university’s Manhattan campus.

Two other highlights in the crackdown saw police forces rounding up roughly the same number of people at New York University and Emerson College in Boston.

Protests have also erupted across numerous other seats of learning, including Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, and California State Polytechnic in Humboldt.

The ensuing countrywide counter-campaign of suppression has seen law enforcement resorting to riot control methods against the protesters.

The methods have featured “the same tools and tactics” that were deployed to confront the thousands-strong protests that sparked across the country after a Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd four years ago, the daily reported.

“At Emory University last week, Atlanta police said officers used ‘chemical irritants’ to clear an encampment, and a Georgia State Patrol officer was captured on video using a stun gun to subdue a man on the ground,” it said.

Academics have, meanwhile, been banding together throughout the US under the banner of Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine (FSJP).

Earlier in April, the FSJP’s Georgia chapter called on Morehouse College in Atlanta, which invited Joe Biden as its 2024 commencement speaker, to rescind its invitation as a means of objecting to the president’s role in enabling the Israeli genocide.

At Biden’s behest, the United States has been providing the Israeli war with unreserved military and intelligence support.

The US has also vetoed several United Nations Security Council resolutions calling for an immediate ceasefire in the brutal military onslaught that has so far claimed the lives of at least 34,454 Gazans, mostly women and children.

Guwahati: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday condemned the alleged sexual abuse of women involving Lok Sabha MP Prajwal Revanna, asserting that the BJP will not tolerate any insult to women.

Revanna (33) is the BJP-JD(S) alliance candidate for Hassan Lok Sabha constituency, which went to polls on April 26.

Earlier in the day, the JD(S) suspended Revanna from the party with immediate effect.

“The issue regarding Revanna that has been reported in the media is very hurtful and cannot be tolerated in any way,” Shah told a press conference here.

“The BJP’s stand is very clear; we will not tolerate any insult to ‘matri aur nari shakti’ (women empowerment),” he asserted.

Some explicit video clips allegedly involving Prajwal Revanna, the grandson of former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, were circulated in Hassan over the last few days.

The home minister said Congress has been alleging that an NDA partner’s candidate is involved in the incident, “but I just want to ask a small question - whose government is there in that state (Karnataka)?”

“The Congress is in power in Karnataka, and this matter must have come to their attention. Why has it not taken any action on it so far? We cannot take any action as law and order is a state issue,” Shah said.