SC dismisses Prajwal Revanna's bail plea in sex scandal case

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a bail petition filed by Karnataka's sensational sex video case prime accused and former MP Prajwal Revanna, who is the grandson of former PM H.D. Deve Gowda. 

Senior advocate Mukul Rohtagi, appearing for Revanna, contended that opponents orchestrated a conspiracy to gain political mileage. "I was earlier an MP, I was contesting for MP and I lost because of all this," he said, adding that a charge sheet has been filed against Revanna and he has been behind bars for four months.

Refusing to entertain the matter, a bench, headed by Justice Bela M. Trivedi, dismissed Revanna’s special leave petition seeking bail. Further, the Bench, also comprising Justice S.C. Sharma, said that it would not pass any order granting liberty to apply afresh for bail after a period of six months.

In an order passed on October 21, the Karnataka High Court had rejected Revanna’s plea for bail in connection with two rape cases and a case of recording of video of a victim of sexual harassment.

Prajwal Revanna is facing four cases in connection with the sex video scandal.

One of the victims from Hassan had filed a rape case against Prajwal Revanna in Bengaluru Cyber police station. The trial court had earlier rejected the bail in the matter. Another case is related to the sexual assault of a maid at the farmhouse in Holenarasipura. The disturbing video of the incident has gone viral on social media during the Lok Sabha election, with the footage of the aged maid, pleading with him to spare her as she is an elderly lady, who served food to his father and other elders of the family as she was sexually assaulted, had stirred outrage.

The victim was kidnapped after the video surfaced on social media and the police had arrested Revanna's father and JD-S MLA H.D. Revanna. Presently, he is out on conditional bail.

The police had also issued an arrest warrant against Prajwal's mother Bhavani Revanna in the case. However, she managed to obtain anticipatory bail. The bail order was challenged by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in the Supreme Court and the apex court upheld the bail order passed by the Karnataka High Court.

Another case relates to forcing a woman from Hassan to strip and recording her video when she approached Revanna for her son's admission to a reputed school. Both cases were registered at the Cyber police station in Bengaluru.