Questioning PM Modi's silence on the issue, Mahila Congress demanded him to bring Prajwal Revanna back from Germany.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi with JD(S) candidate Prajwal Revanna (right) during the poll campaign. (X)
The Karnataka government on Sunday, 5 May, said a Blue Corner Notice has been issued against JD(S) MP Prajwal Revanna, facing sexual abuse allegations, while his MLA father was remanded in custody in a related case.
The Congress party kept up the attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the matter, asking him to break his ‘silence’ on the issue, in which the BJP’s alliance party leader is accused.
The Congress-led Karnataka government announced financial assistance to those allegedly sexually assaulted by Prajwal.
“Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has announced financial assistance to the rape victims who are in hundreds, since it is a unique case which has never happened in the last 75 years,” Congress general secretary and the party’s Karnataka in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala said at a press conference in the presence of the state chief minister, in Bengaluru.
With Prajwal stated to have left the country, a Blue Corner notice has been issued against him and the Interpol’s help is being taken to bring the NDA’s Hassan Lok Sabha candidate back to India, Karnataka Home Minister Dr G Parameshwara said.
A Blue Corner Notice is issued by the international police cooperation body to collect additional information from its member countries about a person’s identity, location, or activities, in relation to a crime.
“Already Blue Corner notice has been issued. The Interpol will inform all the countries and locate him,” Parameshwara told reporters.
Explicit video clips allegedly involving the 33-year-old Prajwal, grandson of JD(S) patriarch and former prime minister HD Deve Gowda, had started making the rounds in Hassan in recent days, following which the state government constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the sexual abuse allegations against the MP.
Meanwhile, on Sunday, Prajwal’s father and JD(S) MLA, HD Revanna was remanded to police custody till 8 May by a Bengaluru court in connection with a case of alleged kidnapping and illegal confining of a woman.
Revanna was arrested on Saturday, 4 May, by the SIT after his bail plea was rejected in the case related to kidnapping and illegally confining a woman who is the mother of three children. Police had also arrested one Sathish Babanna in connection with the abduction and secured the victim from a farmhouse.
The FIR was registered against the 66-year-old Revanna based on a complaint by the woman’s son on Thursday.
After his medical examination at the Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital in Bengaluru, the former minister was produced before the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, who remanded him in SIT custody.
The SIT was formed by the Karnataka government on the recommendation of the Karnataka State Commission for Women chief Nagalakshmi Chowdhary after a huge cache of explicit videos of Prajwal, allegedly sexually abusing women, became public.
There are three FIRs registered in connection with the sexual abuse allegations, involving the father and son, in total.
In the first case in Holenarasipura, the cook and relative of the Revannas complained that the two had molested her. In the second complaint at CID Bengaluru, a JD(S) leader accused Prajwal of raping her at gunpoint, videographing the incident and then blackmailing her.
The third complaint is against HD Revanna pertaining to the abduction and illegal detention of a woman.
Before being produced before the magistrate, Revanna claimed there was no evidence of his involvement.
“There is no evidence pertaining to the May 2 complaint. It’s a big political conspiracy… A conspiracy was hatched against me,” Revanna told reporters at the Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital, where he was taken for a medical checkup.
The Congress on Sunday once again targeted the prime minister over the issue and asserted that its women’s wing will keep raising its voice until Prajwal is brought back to India to face the law.
All India Mahila Congress chief Alka Lamba slammed Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani and National Women Commission Chairperson Rekha Sharma for being silent on the case.
“Today, half the population of the country is demanding that Smriti Irani and Rekha Sharma break their silence,” she said at a press conference at the AICC headquarters in New Delhi.
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge has also expressed concern over the matter and former party chief Rahul Gandhi has written a letter to the Karnataka chief minister, asking for strict action, Lamba said.
“Prime Minister, break your silence. Until PM Modi brings Prajwal Revanna from Germany and hands him over to the Karnataka government, Mahila Congress will raise its voice from every corner of the country. Not only us, half the population of the country (women) will ask you questions,” she said.
“Mahila Congress will ‘gherao’ PM Modi everywhere because we are not afraid of your power and police machinery,” she said.
(Disclaimer: The headline, subheads, and intro of this report along with the photos may have been reworked by South First. The rest of the content is from a syndicated feed, and has been edited for style.)
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