Former MP Prajwal Revanna, a suspended JDS leader, was convicted of rape on Friday by a trial court in Bengaluru.
He was accused of repeatedly raping his maid and recording videos of the same.
Additional City Civil and Sessions Judge Santhosh Gajanan Bhat passed the order, convicting the leader. The quantum of sentence will be pronounced tomorrow.
In April this year, the court had framed charges against Revanna for offences under provisions of the IPC, such as rape of a woman by a person who is in a dominant position or a position of control, repeatedly raping a woman, outraging modesty, assault or use of criminal force to woman with intent to disrobe, voyeurism, criminal intimidation, causing the disappearance of evidence of a crime, Bar and Bench reported.
He was also charged with the offence under Section 66E of the Information Technology Act, 2008, as per which, an individual is punished for violating the privacy of a person, such as circulating private messages without consent.
The case pertains to the serious allegations levelled against Revanna by a maid who was employed at the Revanna family’s farmhouse. She alleged that she was repeatedly raped by him, and the first such incident took place around 2021 during the COVID lockdown.
She had claimed that she could not dare to speak out about the incident as he had filmed the crime and threatened to put out online.
She eventually left her job and remained silent until news of the leak of those videos surfaced.
Over 2,900 videos showing the sexual assault of several women were circulated online, including on social media, prompting her to register a complaint last year. This led to four cases eventually being registered against the former MP.
As he faced criticism, he fled to Germany soon after the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections in Karnataka. He was arrested as he returned to India on May 31 last year. He has been in jail since then.
The SIT, which investigated the case, filed its chargesheet in August last year.
In response to it, Revanna filed a plea to relieve him of all charges, claiming that there was not enough evidence against him in the case.
Revanna’s lawyer said the serious accusations against him were not true and were made to damage his image. Revanna also questioned why the alleged rape was reported so late, since the first incident was said to have happened in 2021.
However, the SIT argued that four volumes of materials have been collected against the accused and said that the videos of sexual assault were proven to be authentic after forensic analysis, Bar and Bench reported.
On April 3, the court dismissed the former MP’s discharge application after finding that there was sufficient material to frame charges against him and carry out the trial.
