SIT files third chargesheet against Prajwal Revanna 

SIT files third chargesheet against former MP Prajwal Revanna for rape and sexual harassment, awaiting forensic reports for evidence.

The Special Investigation Team on Friday, September 13, filed its third chargesheet against the former member of Parliament from Hassan, Prajwal Revanna, charging him with raping a worker from his party, Janata Dal (Secular), allegedly between January 2020 and December 2023.

There are four cases registered against Prajwal, and the SIT is expected to file soon a chargesheet in the fourth case related to sexual harassment. Prajwal Revanna is lodged in Parappana Agrahara Central Prison Complex, and his bail petition is pending before the High Court of Karnataka.

In the chargesheet filed on Friday, the SIT says the victim, a JD(S) worker, was sexually assaulted when she had gone to meet Prajwal at the MP Quarters, which was allotted to former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda but was used by Prajwal as an office in January-February, 2020.

It is also alleged that after everyone left, he dragged her into a room, forced her to disrobe and sexually abused her. He allegedly threatened that he had a gun and that he would kill her husband. He recorded it all on his mobile phone without his face being visible and threatened to leak the video if she spoke of it to anyone.

The chargesheet lists out at least three more instances of the accused raping the victim at the MP Quarters and in his family’s home in Holenarsipur. The chargesheet also alleges that Prajwal had been using SIM cards registered in the names of his staff, including a woman, to call the victim repeatedly, forcing her to disrobe on a video call, and he allegedly took screenshots of the video call.

The chargesheet includes forensic reports of the videos, which reportedly confirm that the man in the video is indeed Prajwal Revanna. However, the SIT has also said more forensic reports were awaited, and they would be submitted to the court as and when they arrive.

Prajwal Revanna has been charged under Sections 376 (2) (n) for committing rape repeatedly on the same woman, 354 for outraging the modesty of a woman, 506 for criminal intimidation of the Indian Penal Code and under various sections of the Information Technology Act, 2000.