On 3 April, Additional City Civil And Session Judge Santhosh Gajanan Bhat had framed charges against Prajwal Revanna.
Published Aug 01, 2025 | 2:13 PM ⚊ Updated Aug 01, 2025 | 2:13 PM
Prajwal Revanna
Synopsis: A Special Court in Bengaluru convicted former MP Prajwal Revanna in the first rape case registered against him. The court will pronounce the sentence later.
A Special Court in Bengaluru on Friday, 1 August, convicted suspended JD(S) leader and former MP Prajwal Revanna in the first rape case registered against him at the Holenarasipura Rural Police Station in the Hassan district of Karnataka.
A Special Investigation Team (SIT) is investigating three cases registered against Prajwal, and he is currently in judicial custody. The court will pronounce the order regarding his sentence on Saturday.
On 3 April, Additional City Civil And Session Judge Santhosh Gajanan Bhat had framed charges against Prajwal under Sections 376(2)(k) (rape by a person in a position of dominance), 376(2)(n) (repeated rape), 354(A) (sexual harassment), 354(B) (assault or use of force with intent to disrobe), 354(C) (voyeurism), 506 (criminal intimidation), and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) and Section 66(e) of the Information Technology Act.
According to the prosecution, the victim worked as a maid at a farmhouse owned by the Revanna family. It is claimed that from 2021, during the Covid-19 lockdown,
Prajwal and his father, former minister and MLA HD Revanna, had sexually assaulted several women employed as maids in their house, the SIT of the Karnataka police said.
Besides rape, Prajwal has been booked for sexually assaulting several women and filming the acts. The video clips were circulated on social media and visual media. He also faces charges of destroying evidence from his mobile phone, used for recording the videos.
Prajwal has been in judicial custody since his arrest on 31 May 2024. After the videos started circulating, Prajwal left the country after casting his vote in the Lok Sabha election on 26 April 2024, but was arrested at the Bengaluru International Airport on his return.
According to the charge sheet, Prajwal blackmailed the women he had harassed for further sexual favours. In 2020, when the survivor (witness-1) was working in the first-floor hall of his house at Holenarsipura, the younger Revanna sexually harassed her when no other workers were present. He allegedly sexually harassed her over the phone as well.
The same year, Prajwal allegedly took several workers, including the woman (witness-1), to Basavanagudi in Bengaluru to clean his house. While the woman was cleaning a bedroom on the west side of the first floor, the accused locked the room and demanded an oil massage. He allegedly threatened to kill her if she did not heed his demand.
Ignoring the woman’s pleas and attempts to escape, he sexually assaulted her. He recorded the act on the mobile phone. Prajwal also threatened to jail her husband if she disclosed the incident to anyone, the charge sheet said.
(Edited by Muhammed Fazil.)
