Published Aug 04, 2025 | 6:44 PM ⚊ Updated Aug 20, 2025 | 9:46 PM
To encourage the women to speak out, local activists in Hassan organised community meetings, conducted awareness campaigns, and provided counselling and support to the survivors. They also organised a massive rally in solidarity with the survivors on 30 May 2024, encouraging the women to reveal their traumatic experience. (Supplied/KS Vimala)
Synopsis: Activists and organisations are happy with the pace of the investigation and the trial, which ended in Prajwal Revanna’s conviction in the farmhouse rape case. They feel the sentencing of the former MP will encourage more survivors to stand up and speak out.
Activists and resistance groups were not sure if Prajwal Revanna, the former JD(S) MP from Hassan, could be brought to book for sexually assaulting and violating the dignity of several helpless and petrified women.
The survivors were scared to come forward and complain against Prajwal, the scion of a powerful political family in Karnataka. Instead, they preferred to remain in the safety of anonymity, but were reluctant to accept the trauma they had to undergo at the hands of the powerful young ‘leader’.
Adding to the insult was the shame of the videos that Prajwal had shot — the videos of him harassing the women.
The Janawadi Mahila Sanghatane was at the forefront, leading a relentless battle against the atrocities meted out to these women. It sought justice for women, but with no one willing to speak out made the going tough.
The first step was to instill confidence in the survivors. “Hassan has been under the feudal control of Prajwal’s family. Society was also quick to defame women whose faces were identifiable in the videos. Hence, they were frightened and not comfortable in detailing their experiences,” Activist KS Vimala of the Sanghatan told South First.
To encourage the women to speak out, local activists in Hassan organised community meetings, conducted awareness campaigns, and provided counselling and support to the survivors.
Vimala said they organised a state-level convention that saw the participation of over 200 people from different walks of life and states.
They also organised a mammoth rally in Hassan on 30 May 2024, and appealed to the survivors not to feel guilty and assured them of continued support.
“After this, we started seeing more women coming forward. Some of their families also stood by them,” Vimala said.
Even as a mobilisation drive was going on in Hassan, the Interpol in Munich alerted the special investigation team (SIT), proving the Prajwal harassment case that the former MP had left Germany.
As the Lufthansa flight from Germany touched down at the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru on 31 May 2024, the police were waiting for him. The immigration picked Prajwal up and handed him over to the waiting officers.
Prajwal’s arrest was the beginning of the second phase of the fight for justice. Activists and organisations did not expect a quick investigation and trial that ended in the former MP getting life imprisonment in the first of the four rape cases against him. Three more are now pending.
The latest sleaze episode in Karnataka politics officially began on 23 April 2024 when Prajwal’s polling agent, Poornachandra Thejaswi MG, approached the cyber police in Hassan. He alleged that some morphed videos and photographs of his leader were being circulated in the district.
Prajwal Revanna. (Supplied)
Even before Thejaswi went to complain, several people in Hassan had seen the lewd videos and photographs, as they were widely circulated.
Two days later, the chairperson of Karnataka State Commission for Women, Dr Nagalakshmi Chowdry, wrote a letter to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, demanding that a special investigative team probe the matter. She alleged that a prominent politician in Hassan was exploiting and blackmailing women with sleazy videos.
As the issue turned hotter, activists and organisations stepped in, seeking protection and justice for the exploited women. On 27 April 2024, the state government constituted an SIT to probe the case.
Even before SIT could reach him, Prajwal left the country using his diplomatic passport (issued to MPs), which did not need a visa. He left for Germany without the mandatory consent of the Ministry of External Affairs. He remained in Germany for more than a month.
Two days later the SIT was formed, the survivor in the farmhouse rape case went missing. She was allegedly abducted on the behest of JD(S) MLA HD Revanna, in a bid to prevent her from testifying against his son Prajwal.
The SIT eventually rescued the woman on 4 May 2024 and subsequently arrested the MLA on abduction charges. His wife, Bhavani Revanna, has also been charged in the same case.
The rape case against Prajwal was registered based on the woman’s complaint.
Soon after the allegations against Prajwal became public, thousands of video clips showing multiple women being sexually abused began circulating on social media. The SIT under BK Singh, Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), Criminal Investigation Department (CID), probed the videos and the subsequent allegations against Prajwal.
The investigators relied on scientific evidence to verify the allegations because the perpetrator’s face was not visible in the videos. They matched photographs of the private parts of the accused to the identification marks found on him. The team had to seek the court’s permission to obtain these photographs after the doctors refused to do so, citing a violation of medical ethics.
Additionally, the forensic team found that the Y-chromosome DNA profile of Prajwal matched the DNA profile obtained from a stain found on a saree belonging to the survivor, according to the detailed judgement report.
The investigators also conducted mahazars of the locations where the crime occurred – a room at the Gannikada farmhouse and a room in Prajwal’s house at Basavanagudi in Bengaluru. The police established that the background and floor tiles identified in the video were the same as those in his room.
Judge Santosh Gajanan Bhat of the Special Court, who convicted Revanna of rape, lauded the SIT for their thorough and technologically advanced probe. He called it a “welcome step”.
“The SIT has utilised the best available scientific methods and also probably it is first case in the state wherein the SIT had requested the Forensic Science Laboratory to super-impose the images of the environment of the room found in the videos with that of the images which were captured scientifically during investigation and also to examine the image patterns, voice analysis in a scientific manner,” the judgement said.
The team also proved that the obscene videos were recorded by the accused. They did this by showing that the phone using which the video was shot was in Prajwal’s possession at the time of shooting the video. It was later transferred to his driver. The prosecution also used data from Apple Inc. to prove their case.
Moreover, the prosecution also repeatedly argued that Prajwal misused his power by committing the crime and then attempting to escape. The prosecution also argued that the survivor is still facing trauma in her everyday life.
While the forensic evidence was a major turning point in the case, the statements of the survivor were also crucial. The prosecution noted in court how the woman broke down in tears multiple times when she saw the video, during the cross-examination, and even after the verdict.
However, she still stood firm with the team for more than a year, officer Singh told reporters.
On Friday, 1 August, the activists and organisations that fought for the women were a happy lot. A special court for elected representatives in Bengaluru held Prajwal guilty of raping a woman, a maid, at his farmhouse in Gannikada. The next day, the court sentenced him to life imprisonment.
“This will encourage more survivors of sexual assault to fight for justice,” the Janawadi Mahila Sanghatane said in a statement soon after the conviction.
The community meetings, awareness campaigns, counselling, and support to the survivors provided by activists worked.
Janawadi Mahila Sanghatane’s Vimala recalled that a year ago, many of the survivors were hesitant to file complaints, often asking them whether they were certain that Prajwal would be held accountable.
“We then had no way of knowing what action the government would take to ensure justice. We didn’t have many success stories to offer as reassurance,” Vimala said.
Hence, activists like her decided to get the civil society and resistance groups to come together to put pressure on the government.
Naaveddu Nilladiddare, a civil rights organisation, wrote to the Karnataka State Women’s Commission, urging it to ensure that the videos and images of the women are taken down to protect the safety and dignity of the survivors.
Two days after Prajwal was sentenced, the activists are happy. They lauded the quick investigation by the SIT and a fair verdict by the court.
“This judgement is a sign of hope,” Vimala said.
(Edited by Majnu Babu).
