Bengaluru special court refuses to discharge Prajwal Revanna in sexual assault case

Bengaluru court refuses to discharge Prajwal Revanna in sexual assault case, citing strong evidence against him.

A special court in Bengaluru has declined to discharge former Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna in an alleged sexual assault case while pointing that there are enough material to frame charges against him.

Santosh Gajanan Bhat, judge of the special court of sessions for criminal cases against former and present MPs and MLAs, said “materials and digital evidence recovered during the probe creates a strong and grave suspicion with respect to the commission of the alleged incident” even though the veracity of the digital evidence is a matter to be considered during trial which requires to be considered succinctly during the course of the trial.

On perusing the statement of other witnesses and also the materials collected by the investigating agency, the court said these material “clearly cast a grave suspicion with respect to the commission of the offence and as such question of discharging the accused on the aforesaid aspects does not arise.”

It is to be “presumed in ordinary prudence that no woman would come before the court to make a statement about her own chastity which is considered to be much more important than being alive in normal Indian traditional society,” the court said.

In this case, it has been alleged that Prajwal has sexually assaulted a domestic help at his Gannikada Farm House in Hassan district as well as at his house at Basavanagudi in Bengaluru during the COVID lockdown period in 2021.  The case was initially registered at K R Nagar police station which was later transferred to the Special Investigation Team of the Criminal Investigation Department.