Prajwal Revanna, Deve Gowda’s Grandson, Suspended from JDS Amid Escalating Sex Scandal Controversy

Prajwal Revanna, a sitting MP from Karnataka’s Hassan constituency, has been issued a show cause notice by the party. The scandal involving hundreds of explicit videos, allegedly involving Prajwal Revanna, surfaced on social media a day after his constituency went to polls.

These videos were purportedly shot by Mr. Revanna, who is the grandson of JDS chief and former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, and were widely circulated in the Hassan constituency. Subsequently, a woman filed a police case against Prajwal Revanna, accusing him of sexual assault.

She alleged that she had been sexually abused multiple times between 2019 and 2022. The complainant also claimed that Prajwal Revanna had misbehaved with her daughter over a video call and had engaged in “vulgar conversations” with her.

Additionally, the woman alleged that Prajwal’s father, HD Revanna, also sexually assaulted her while his wife was not at home. Prajwal has denied the allegations and filed a complaint claiming that the videos being circulated are doctored.

In response to the emergence of the videos, the 33-year-old left for Germany shortly after they became public. Prajwal’s father HD Revanna, who is also an accused in the case, is an MLA from the Holenarasipur constituency.

HD Revanna has also accused political rivals of creating a conspiracy out of “old videos”. The Karnataka government has formed a special investigation team (SIT) to look into the obscene videos case, following a recommendation by the state women’s commission.

There are reports of Prajwal leaving the country pending a probe, and the Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara stated that Prajwal will be asked to return to India by the SIT. The Karnataka State Commission for Women chairperson, Nagalakshmi Choudhary, disclosed that the pen drive she received contained numerous explicit videos, some of which purportedly showed the sitting MP from Hassan.

BJP Leader Devaraje Gowda also claimed that he had written to the state president BY Vijayendra in December last year, flagging “grave allegations” against the HD Deve Gowda family, including Prajwal Revanna. He alleged that he had received a pen drive containing 2,976 explicit videos of women, which were allegedly being used to blackmail them into engaging in sexual activities.