Prajwal Revanna case: SIT chargesheet reveals how driver stole, leaked videos

Bengaluru: A fresh chargesheet filed by the Karnataka police’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) revealed a web of deceit, conspiracy, political rivalry and an elaborate plot behind leaking obscene videos linked to former JD(S) MP Prajwal Revanna right before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections that led to his conviction and life imprisonment.

Chargesheet accessed exclusively by DH revealed that Karthik N (33) — Prajwal’s former driver and a key accused in the chargesheet — exploited his proximity to the former MP, stealthily memorised the PIN, and when left alone in one instance with the mobile phone, transferred the private, obscene videos to his own mobile phone and then to a hard drive.

In order to cover his tracks, Karthik filed a false police case in August 2021, claiming that his phones were lost.

The SIT submitted a 13,712-page chargesheet to a court in Hassan last month, naming 39 people as the accused after inquiry. The probe team also examined 277 witnesses, along with forensic analysis of pen drives and gathered other pieces of technical evidence.

“Since Prajwal Revanna is already convicted in a case, he has been left off this chargesheet,” a source in the prosecution team told DH.

Fallout

In August 2022, there was a fallout between Karthik and Prajwal’s family over a 13.25-acre land parcel in Hassan’s Holenarasipura. Subsequently, Karthik was forced to surrender the land and was fired from his job.

Driven by vengeance, he allied with Devarajegowda G (accused 8), a local BJP leader and Prajwal’s rival.
Devarajegowda, in a January 2024 press conference, threatened to publicly screen the "Rasaleele" (scandals), the chargesheet noted.

Harish SN (33)— Prajwal’s auditor and accused 23 — was also part of the conspiracy, as he was miffed over the former MP and his family not getting him a government job.

Then came Naveen Gowda, accused 1, who on April 10, 2024, ran a “teaser campaign” on his Facebook account, attempting to titillate the public about  “leak of Prajwal’s videos” before deleting the posts to hide evidence. He also posted #PenDrive, along with a cropped portrait of Prajwal.

On April 20, 2024, the accused gathered in Belur and executed their plan of distributing the pen drives. They had procured around 70 pen drives locally for Rs 13,500 at Ram Dev Mobile Communication and copied the obscene visuals into them.

To hide their identity, the accused decided to physically hand over the pen drives to staunch rivals of Prajwal and his family, while they decided to place other pen drives stealthily near offices of Bajarang Dal, the RSS and the BJP. The pen drives were also strategically placed in public areas like the Maharaja Park and the district stadium.

The chargesheet also noted that Nishanth MJ (accused 22) invited a few other political leaders to his house “to watch the videos on his home television” and openly claimed that he had “Prajwal Revanna’s videos”.

Many of the accused named in the chargesheet were active in rival political factions of Prajwal, the chargesheet noted.

The chargesheet also revealed a detailed money trail between the accused to fund the operation. It further laid bare the concerted efforts, including the deliberate smashing of a mobile phone by Sumanth K (accused 24) and an attempt by Chethan YS (accused 6) to burn a pen drive in a water heater, towards the destruction of evidence.