Prajwal Revanna, accused in sexual abuse cases, loses election in Hassan

Suspended Hassan JD(S) MP Prajwal Revanna, who is facing charges of sexually abusing several women, lost the Lok Sabha elections to Shreyas M Patel of the Congress by 42,549 votes on Tuesday. Patel secured 6,72,988 votes and Revanna 6,30,339.

The 33-year-old Revanna, who is the grandson of former prime minister and JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda, was the only one from JD(S) to win the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka. Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections on April 26, a huge cache of explicit videos went viral showing women being sexually assaulted, allegedly by Prajwal.

Soon after the polling, Prajwal left the country and was holed up in Germany for over a month. Taking note of the cases, the Karnataka government formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT), which arrested him on May 31 as soon as he landed at the Kempegowda International Airport here.


The police also arrested his father and Holenarasipura MLA H D Revanna on charges of kidnapping a woman who had figured in one of the explicit videos where she was sexually assaulted allegedly by Prajwal. H D Revanna was later released after a court granted him bail.

His wife and Prajwal's mother Bhavani Revanna is absconding in the same kidnapping case. The 31-year-old Shreyas Patel had contested against H D Revanna in Holenarasipura in the assembly polls last year, but lost by 3,152 votes.