Sitting JD(S) legislator from Kadur Suraj Revanna, the elder brother of former JD(S) MP Prajwal Revanna, has been arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a male party worker. Prajwal Revanna was remanded to judicial custody a week later on similar charges.
The case in the chargesheet against Suraj Revanna was filed by a 27-year-old party worker, who accused the JD(S) leader of sexually assaulting him at a farmhouse in Hassan district on June 16. Still, Suraj denied any wrong allegations and said that the woman had demanded ₹ 5 crores from him and filed a false case when her demand was unmet.
More intriguing, the friend of Suraj, Shivkumar, too has lodged a police complaint wherein he has alleged that the same party worker had called for ₹ 5 crore from him this month and threatened to file a sexual abuse case against Suraj.
The unearthing drama has again focused media and public attention on the Revanna family, entwined in a series of scandals. It’s already a well-known fact that the JD(S) leader Prajwal Revanna, grandson of the party chief and ex-PM H D Deve Gowda, has several cases of sexual harassment filed against him, and shortly before the Lok Sabha polls, some graphic videos, reportedly featuring Prajwal Revanna, did the rounds in Hassan.
Prajwal has been expelled from the party; the BJP, on the other hand, has little to do with investigations into the videos, and even further, the party does not have anything to say on the whole issue.
While the case against the latest allegations leveled against Suraj Revanna continues, the Karnataka government has made it definite that the CID further investigate it. These scandals of the JD (S) party leaders are likely to politically destabilize the Revanna clan and jeopardize this party’s existence in the Indian political system.
