3rd case filed against Prajwal; whistleblower also booked

One more rape case has been registered against Janata Dal-Secular MP and Lok Sabha poll candidate from Hassan Prajwal Revanna, taking the number of cases pertaining to the alleged sexual abuse of several women to three, police sources said.

The first information report (FIR) was registered against Prajwal on May 8 in Bengaluru, according to sources in the Special Investigation Team which was constituted for a probe after a huge cache of explicit videos allegedly showing Prajwal sexually abusing several women became public.

A case has been registered under Indian Penal Code 376(2)(N), 376(2)(K), 354(A), 354(B), 354(C) and 506 of the IPC was registered.

These cases pertain to repeated rape, voyeurism, filming, demand for sexual favours, dragging by clothes, molestation and threatening.

The details of the victim have not been shared by the SIT sources.

Prajwal is the grandson of former prime minister and JD-S supremo H D Deve Gowda and stood for the April 26 Lok Sabha election in Hassan as the National Democratic Alliance candidate. His party had formed an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2023.

Just before the election, the videos went viral on social media.

The first FIR pertains to molestation of his cook in Holenarasipura in Hassan.

Prajwal's father and Holenarasipura MLA H D Revanna is also an accused in the case. The second case pertains to raping a JD-S worker at gunpoint.

H D Revanna is already lodged in the Central Jail at Parappara Agrahara under judicial custody after a 20-year-old youth alleged that Revanna and his aide kidnapped his mother.

The youth said his mother had figured in one of the videos where she was allegedly tied and raped by Prajwal.

The Hassan MP is at large and is believed to be hiding abroad.

A Blue Corner notice of the Interpol seeking information on his whereabouts has been issued against Prajwal.

Whistleblower booked for sexual harassment

Meanwhile, a case of sexual harassment has been registered against Bharatiya Janata Party leader G Devaraje Gowda from Hassan, who had written to the saffron party leadership before it formed an alliance with the JD-S, flagging Prajwal Revanna's alleged sexual abuse of several women, police said on Friday.

The FIR was registered against Devaraje Gowda, who is an advocate, on April 1 but it has come to light only recently after his whistleblowing in the Prajwal Revanna case.

Devaraje Gowda was the one who had alerted the BJP leadership last year about Prajwal Revanna's alleged sexual abuse of several women, and cautioned the saffron party not to give a Lok Sabha ticket to the JD-S MP from Hassan.

The BJP entered into an alliance with the JD-S last year.

Devaraje Gowda, who contested the 2023 assembly election against Prajwal's father and Holenarasipura MLA H D Revanna -- also accused in a case of molestation and another for abduction -- had blamed the Congress leadership in Karnataka for leaking the sexual abuse videos.

Devaraje Gowda has been booked on a complaint by a 36-year-old woman from Hassan district, who alleged that he molested her on the pretext of helping her sell her property.

The BJP leader was not available for comment.