Prajwal Revanna’s case: Karnataka High Court refuses to stay investigation against former MLA for allegedly circulating videos
It, however, directs the SIT not to arrest Preetham Gowda for now but allows his questioning from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Observing that the issue involved is about the image of a woman and her right to privacy, the High Court of Karnataka on Friday refused to stay the investigation against former BJP MLA Preetham Gowda in a criminal case registered against him and others for allegedly recording and circulating/distributing allegedly explicit images and video clips of Prajwal Revanna’s video calls with a victim woman.
The court, however, restrained the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which is probing all three rape cases registered against Mr. Prajwal, from arresting Mr. Gowda for now but allowed it to interrogate him from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Also, the court permitted the SIT to conduct search and seizure for discovering the materials related to the alleged offences.
Justice Krishna S. Dixit passed the interim order on a petition filed by Mr. Gowda, who has challenged the legality of the registration of a first information report (FIR), in which he has been arraigned as suspect number four based on a complaint lodged by a victim woman.
While Mr. Prajwal is arraigned as an accused, Kiran and Sharath, both associates of Mr. Gowda, have been arraigned as suspects number two and three, respectively, in the FIR.
The CID’s Cyber Crime Police Station had on June 10 registered the FIR based on the complaint lodged by a 42-year-old victim woman from Hassan district.
Video calls
The complainant had alleged that she had taken Mr. Prajwal’s help in 2019 for admission of her son to a school as he was a member of the Lok Sabha then, and at that time he had taken her mobile number, and later he kept frequently calling her. After some time, Mr. Prajwal allegedly made a video call to her and compelled her to strip despite her resistance.
Mr. Prajwal allegedly compelled her to do such acts during many video calls and every time he would masturbate after seeing her nude. She came to know that he was recording her nude videos when he once threatened to make her videos viral as she had refused do the act, it is alleged.
Mr. Prajwal had told her that his political opponents were posting morphed images when she called him over the phone in the presence of her husband on April 22, it has been stated in the complaint, while pointing out that he had also assured her that nothing would become public as he had already secured an injunction from a court.
Stating that four of her images and video clips again became viral on May 28, a few days prior to Mr. Prajwal’s arrest, she has alleged that she heard from people that Mr. Kiran, Mr. Sharath and Mr. Gowda had intentionally made those images and videos viral, despite knowing that it is an offence.
Gowda’s arguments
It was argued on behalf of Mr. Gowda that the complainant had not directly alleged that the petitioner had committed the offence as she was acting merely on hearsay.
- Telegram
SEE ALL
PRINT
Karnataka
/
sexual assault & rape