Hassan sex abuse case: JD(S) leader H D Revanna sent to SIT custody till May 8

Bengaluru: A Bengaluru court on Sunday remanded JD(S) MLA H D Revanna in the Special Investigation Team's custody until May 8 in a kidnapping case linked to the Hassan sex scandal while the wait continued for his son and Hassan MP Prajwal, against whom a 'Blue Corner Notice' has been issued.

Revanna, arrested on Saturday evening from the Bengaluru house of his father and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, was produced before the 17th Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Ravindrakumar B Kattimani at his residence in Koramangala on Sunday evening.

Before that, he underwent a few rounds of preliminary questioning and medical tests at the government-run Bowring Hospital.

A former minister, Revanna was named in an FIR related to the kidnap and illegal confinement of a woman allegedly sexually assaulted by Prajwal in Mysuru. He was arrested after a court declined to give him interim anticipatory bail.

Well-placed sources said that the probe team sought Revanna's custody as it needed to interrogate him in detail about the sex scandal. After the magistrate remanded Revanna in the SIT custody, the latter was taken to the probe team's office at the CID headquarters.

After purported videos of women being sexually abused and harassed leaked days before polling for the general elections in southern Karnataka on April 26, a case was registered on April 28 at the Holenarasipur police station in Hassan, accusing Revanna and Prajwal of sexually harassing a 47-year-old house help.

Revanna is also the Holenarasipur MLA.

On May 1, a 44-year-old former member of the Hassan zilla panchayat accused Prajwal of repeated rape, threats and blackmail over three years. The CID subsequently took up a case.

On May 2, the son of a survivor allegedly sexually assaulted by Prajwal filed a case at the KR Nagar police station in Mysuru, accusing Revanna and his aide Sathish Babanna of kidnapping the woman on April 29.

Babanna was arrested on May 3 and remanded in judicial custody. On May 4, SIT officials rescued the woman, a former maid at Revanna’s house in Holenarasipur, from a farmhouse at Kaalenahalli village in Mysuru’s Hunsur taluk belonging to Revanna's aide Rajashekar.

The woman was moved to Bengaluru but failed to respond satisfactorily when questioned by the SIT on Sunday, sources said.

Meanwhile, speculations were rife that Prajwal would arrive in Bengaluru on Sunday and surrender before the SIT. He was yet to land in India.

During the day, Home Minister G Parameshwara said a ‘Blue Corner Notice’ was issued against Prajwal. The CBI is the nodal body for Interpol in India through which the blue corner notice — seeking “additional information about a person’s identity, location or activities concerning a criminal investigation” — was issued.

“A Blue Corner Notice has already been issued,” Parameshwara told reporters. “Interpol will inform all the countries and locate him.”

SIT sets up hotline The SIT has set up a helpline for the survivors. The survivors and those with any information can call 6360938947. Their identity will be kept a secret the SIT said.