A special court in Bengaluru on Friday convicted former Member of Parliament and suspended Janata Dal (Secular) leader Prajwal Revanna in a rape and sexual abuse case involving a former domestic worker at his family’s farmhouse, with the quantum of punishment to be announced on Saturday.
The order was passed by Special Court Judge Santosh Gajanan Bhat, who also holds the post of Additional City Civil and Sessions Judge.
After Friday’s verdict, India Today reported that Revanna broke down in court upon hearing the conviction order.
The conviction stems from one of the four cases registered against Revanna, who has been accused of repeatedly raping a 48-year-old woman working as a domestic help at his family’s Gannikada farmhouse in Holenarasipura, Hassan district, during the Covid-19 lockdown in 2021. The woman alleged that the assaults were filmed on Revanna’s phone, and she was later threatened with the release of the footage, leading to her silence.
According to Bar and Bench, the trial court had in April framed charges against Revanna under multiple provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including:
- Section 376(2)(k) – rape by a person in a dominant position;
- Section 376(2)(n) – repeated rape;
- Section 354A – sexual harassment;
- Section 354B – assault with intent to disrobe;
- Section 354C – voyeurism;
- Section 506 – criminal intimidation; and
- Section 201 – destruction of evidence.
He was also charged under Section 66E of the Information Technology Act, 2008, for violating the complainant’s privacy by circulating intimate visuals without consent.
The case gained national attention after USB drives allegedly containing over 2,900 explicit videos involving Revanna and multiple women were reportedly leaked and circulated in Hassan ahead of the April 26, 2024, Lok Sabha elections.
The accused, a grandson of former Prime Minister and JD(S) patriarch H.D. Deve Gowda, fled to Germany soon after the scandal broke. On May 31, 2024, he was arrested by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) upon landing at Bengaluru Airport, following the registration of a case at the Holenarasipura Town Police Station.
Following the SIT’s filing of a chargesheet in August 2024, Revanna sought to be discharged from the case, claiming insufficient evidence and alleging a political conspiracy to defame him. His counsel argued that the allegations were “far from the truth” and questioned the delay in reporting the incidents.
However, the court rejected this application on April 3, stating that the victim’s testimony was credible enough to proceed with trial, and that “issues such as the delay in reporting the crime or recovery of the original recording device are to be tested during the trial, not at the discharge stage.”
The court also dismissed Revanna’s argument that the SIT lacked authority to file a chargesheet, observing that it had acted within its legal powers.
The SIT maintained that its forensic analysis confirmed the authenticity of the videos and that four volumes of material evidence were submitted against Revanna.
The JD(S) suspended Prajwal Revanna following the registration of the criminal cases. He had earlier lost his bid to retain the Hassan parliamentary seat in the 2024 elections.