JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy has appealed to his nephew and absconding Hassan MP, Prajwal Revanna, to return to the country and cooperate with the police investigation.
Prajwal left the country for Germany on April 27 and is facing SIT investigation into a series of allegations of sexual abuse, videos of which were allegedly distributed on pen drives just before the first phase of polls in Karnataka.
“Wherever you are, come back and face the inquiry. I request you not to avoid it. If you have not done anything wrong, why are you afraid? You will have to fight it out,” said Kumaraswamy, while also demanding that the work of the SIT in this alleged sex scandal be more transparent. He claimed that the SIT has not taken any action against those who distributed the ‘pen drives’.
Kumaraswamy added that Prajwal’s grandfather and former Prime Minister Deve Gowda had dedicated his entire political career to Prajwal Revanna’s political growth, and as a mark of respect to his grandfather (Deve Gowda) and the JD(S) party workers, he should return in the next 24 to 48 hours.
Continuing his attack on the ruling Congress government, which Kumaraswamy accused of “misusing its powers” in the Prajwal case, he stated that Deputy CM DK Shivakumar has been using the ‘leaked videos of victims’ to politically finish off Deve Gowda’s family. “Where are the 2,900 women who have allegedly been abused?” questioned Kumaraswamy, while requesting the Central government for a fair probe into the matter.
Kumaraswamy claimed last week that ahead of the first phase of polls in Karnataka in April, a conspiracy was hatched by the Congress where over 25,000 pen drives containing the alleged videos were distributed across the state.
The former Karnataka CM said that the Congress government in Karnataka was supporting those, including Deputy CM DK Shivakumar, who were involved in the distribution of the pen drives. Shivakumar reacted by calling Kumaraswamy “the king of blackmail”.
“The audio clip that was released yesterday, anybody can recognise that the pen drive was released by DK Shivakumar and his team,” Kumaraswamy said, while demanding that CM Siddaramaiah should take action against the Deputy CM “if he had any morality”.
“The audio clip is clear-cut and shows how they manipulated this case,” accused Kumaraswamy. He also appealed to the Central government to conduct a proper investigation into this case.
Kumaraswamy, when recently asked by the media about when the JD(S) MP would return to the country despite the fact that a blue corner notice has been issued against him, said that Prajwal was not in touch with him even when he was in Karnataka and he has no idea about his whereabouts.
A delegation of JDS leaders had recently met with Karnataka Governor Thawarchand Gehlot to direct the Siddaramaiah government to recommend a CBI probe into the matter, as they felt that the SIT was being politically influenced and misguided by the state government.
Prajwal Revanna, who contested from the Hassan Lok Sabha seat as the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate, fled from the country a day after the first phase of polling in Karnataka was completed. He continues to remain absconding despite his lawyers claiming he would be present in front of the SIT before May 7.
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