Former Janata Dal (Secular) MP Prajwal Revanna has been sentenced to life imprisonment by a special court in Bengaluru for the rape of his domestic worker. Revanna, the grandson of former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda and nephew of Union Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, was also found guilty of circulating videos of the sexual assaults against the 48-year-old victim.
The victim, who worked as domestic help at the Revanna family’s farmhouse in Holenarasipura, Hassan district, alleged that Revanna repeatedly raped her beginning in 2021. She further stated that he recorded the assaults and threatened to release the videos if she disclosed the abuse to anyone.
The special court for MPs and MLAs in Bengaluru had charged Revanna, 34, under multiple sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including rape, voyeurism, criminal intimidation, and the unlawful circulation of intimate images. On Friday, Judge Santosh Gajanan Bhat convicted him, and the sentence was handed down the following day.
Special Public Prosecutor B.N. Jagadish, representing the survivor, told the court that the woman had endured repeated sexual assaults and blackmail, to the point that she contemplated suicide after viewing the video evidence of her abuse.
“The video of the assault reflects Prajwal’s sadistic mindset. As a sitting MP, he was fully aware of the law, yet he committed these crimes. He is a habitual offender who recorded videos of multiple women. The maximum punishment must be imposed,” Jagadish was quoted as saying by news agency IANS.
He further emphasized:“A strong message must be sent that wealth and political influence do not ensure leniency. Courts must dispel the perception that influential individuals evade severe punishment while ordinary citizens bear the full weight of the law.”
During his final statement before sentencing, Prajwal Revanna reportedly broke down, questioning the timing of the case:
“Why did this case emerge during the elections? When I was an MP, no complaints were filed against me. Now they claim I committed multiple assaults. Why did no one come forward earlier? Why did it only surface during the election?”
The court sentenced Revanna to life imprisonment under two sections of the IPC, additional terms ranging from two to seven years under five other sections, and three years under the Information Technology Act for circulating the assault videos. The court also ordered compensation of ₹11 lakh for the survivor.
The sex scandal surfaced on April 26 last year, a day after polling in the Hassan Lok Sabha constituency, where Revanna was a candidate. Videos depicting sexual assaults on multiple women circulated widely, with some footage allegedly showing Revanna himself committing the abuse.
Following the emergence of the videos, Revanna fled to Germany and was subsequently suspended by the JD(S), which contested the Lok Sabha elections in alliance with the BJP. He later lost the election and was arrested in May last year upon his return to India.
