An unfortunate debate in Karnataka Premium

The narrative has shifted from rape to the question of who leaked the videos

The narrative around the Prajwal Revanna case seems to have shifted in Karnataka. Initially, there was outrage against the Hassan MP, who stands accused of sexual abuse and rape, as well as his father, who allegedly attempted to prevent victims from testifying against Prajwal. Now, the debate has slowly shifted to who leaked the explicit content. This narrative suggests that the entire case is a “political conspiracy.”

Prajwal, who left India in April, said on video on Monday that he will be returning on May 31 and that the people who want to “thwart” his political growth have hatched this “conspiracy”.

Former Chief Minister and Janata Dal (Secular) State president H.D. Kumaraswamy, who is Prajwal’s uncle, has been relentlessly attacking the government in the State, accusing the ruling Congress and specifically Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar of orchestrating the leak of the sexually explicit videos. While maintaining that he is not defending Prajwal and has in fact appealed to his nephew to return home and cooperate with the Special Investigation Team (SIT) that was formed to probe his alleged crimes, Mr. Kumaraswamy has been effectively pushing the Congress to a defensive position. He has thus shifted the focus of the debate around the issue in the public.

This attempt follows Devaraje Gowda’s allegation that Mr. Shivakumar had offered him money to leak the content. Mr. Gowda, an advocate from Hassan, was the first to claim in a letter to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership in December 2023 that he had a copy of the explicit content, with 2,976 files, and had argued against giving ticket to Prajwal. He has now been arrested in a sexual abuse case.

The bone of contention between the two Vokkaliga leaders, that is, Mr. Kumaraswamy and Mr. Shivakumar, has been the mantle of leadership of the community. Mr. Shivakumar is keen on snatching the leadership from the Gowda family. As most of the victims in the case are also Vokkaligas, Mr. Shivakumar has been accused of “misusing” the videos of these women for political gains. Posters making these accusations against him turned up at many places in Bengaluru a few weeks ago.

Alleging that the SIT was being “partisan” and not probing how the videos got leaked and distributed, Mr. Kumaraswamy, along with the BJP, has demanded that the case be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). However, the State government has ruled out a CBI probe.

So far, the SIT has arrested three people, all linked to the BJP; raided multiple locations in Hassan; and recovered several computer devices which were allegedly used to leak the explicit content.