Prajwal Revanna, Grandson of Deve Gowda, Suspended from JDS Amid Deepening Sex Scandal Controversy

Prajwal Revanna, a sitting MP from Karnataka’s Hassan constituency, has been issued a show cause notice by the party. Video clips allegedly involving Prajwal Revanna surfaced on social media a day after his constituency went to the polls. The scandal involves hundreds of explicit videos allegedly shot by Mr. Revanna, the grandson of JDS chief and former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, and widely circulated in the Hassan constituency.

Following this, 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 misbehaved with her daughter over a video call and had “vulgar conversations” with her.

Furthermore, the woman alleged that Prajwal’s father, HD Revanna, also sexually assaulted her when his wife was not at home. Prajwal has denied the allegations and filed a complaint stating that the videos being circulated are doctored. In response to the emergence of the videos, the 33-year-old left for Germany shortly afterward.

Prajwal’s father, HD Revanna, who is also an accused in the case, is an MLA from the Holenarasipur constituency. He too, 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 from the state women’s commission.

On the reports of Prajwal leaving the country pending a probe, Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara said that Prajwal would be asked to return to India by the SIT. The Karnataka State Commission for Women chairperson Nagalakshmi Choudhary stated that the pen drive she received had hundreds of explicit videos, some of which purport to show the sitting MP from Hassan. Additionally, BJP Leader Devaraje Gowda, who was the party’s Holenarsipura candidate during the 2023 Assembly elections, has claimed that he wrote to the state president in December last year, flagging “grave allegations” against the HD Deve Gowda family, including Prajwal Revanna.

He claimed to have received a pen drive containing 2,976 explicit videos of women, which were allegedly being used to blackmail them into continued engagement in sexual activities.