Janata Dal (Secular) MP Prajwal Revanna, who has been out of the country since the sex scandal surfaced and is accused in the sex tapes case, was taken into custody in the early hours of Friday, shortly after arriving from Germany.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Karnataka Police apprehended him and brought him to the CID office for questioning.
The Karnataka SIT appeared to be sending a symbolic message when they sent a team of women cops, headed by a woman IPS officer, to arrest the JD(S) MP. He was apprehended by as many as five female police officers.
The SIT is attempting to identify the main device that was used to capture the obscene recordings, in addition to sending the sex tapes to the Forensic Science Laboratory Division as part of their inquiry. They will question Prajwal Revanna about the matter and seek to find out which mobile device was the primary device used to record the footage.
Police sources claim the main device was destroyed, and the JD(S) MP could be facing additional charges of “witness tampering” if investigators are unable to find it.
In April, after explicit videos purporting to show him sexually abusing many women began to circulate in Karnataka, Prajwal Revanna—who is running for reelection as an NDA candidate from the Hassan Lok Sabha seat—left the country.
On April 26, Hassan went to the polls in the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections.
Three rape cases have been registered against Prajwal Revanna so far. Arun G, Prajwal Revanna’s lawyer, told reporters that his client returned to India to take part in the investigation and “give his cooperation for interrogation purposes.”
“Yesterday, he was held at immigration centre which is right as per the procedure. The reason why he has come is to cooperate with the investigation and that is what he has been doing. Additionally, he requested to media kindly not to do any media trial,” Arun G said.
He said in a video message earlier this week that he would come before the investigators on May 31 and assist with the probe. He claimed that the accusations made against him were untrue.
After the matter surfaced, Prajwal Revanna said he went into “depression and isolation” and asserted that “political forces” were at work in Hassan.
“Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and other senior Congress leaders started campaigning against me in open forums, and politically conspiring against me. I went into depression and isolation,” he said in the video.
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