New Delhi: The special investigation team (SIT) probing allegations of sexual abuse against former Janata Dal (Secular) (JD(S)) MP Prajwal Revanna filed a chargesheet against him in one case on Friday (August 23), news reports have said.
In the 2,144-page chargesheet, Prajwal is charged under IPC sections relating to rape and sexual harassment, The Hindu reported. While he is named accused no. 2, his father H.D. Revanna is accused no. 1 and is charged with sexual harassment.
The case, one of four against Prajwal that the SIT is investigating, involves a woman who worked for his family as a domestic help and whom he allegedly sexually assaulted and filmed in Bengaluru.
Prajwal is also accused of forcing the woman’s daughter to strip over a video call.
H.D. Revanna is accused of sexually harassing the woman in their family home in Holenarasipura in Karnataka between 2019 and 2022.
Other than the woman and her daughter, the chargesheet lists as witnesses a few women whom Prajwal also allegedly sexually harassed, the Indian Express reported.
According to the newspaper, the chargesheet also accuses Prajwal of destroying electronic evidence of abuse he committed and filmed using his phone.
Of the three other cases against Prajwal in which the SIT is yet to file chargesheets, two involve rape accusations. He is accused of raping a JD(S) worker as well as another woman who worked at his family home.
According to The News Minute, five women have filed complaints against Prajwal, with the fifth woman accusing him of sexual harassment in June.
The cases against the ex-MP came to light in April when multiple videos showed instances of what looked like him committing forceful and non-consensual sexual acts.
In many videos, it appeared he recorded women without their consent and who appeared to be under some form of duress.
Prajwal had left India just as the videos were publicly circulated but returned on May 31, when he was immediately arrested by the SIT. He is in now judicial custody.
He contested the Lok Sabha election from Karnataka’s Hassan as the incumbent JD(S) MP but lost to the Congress’s Shreyas Patel. Prajwal’s party suspended his membership soon after the videos in his case became public.
His father Revanna was arrested in May on kidnapping charges and is out on bail.
