Prajwal Revanna sexual harassment case: Siddaramaiah asks PM Modi to help bring ‘absconding’ Hassan MP back to India

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his intervention to cancel the diplomatic passport of Prajwal Revanna claiming the MP of Hassan has ‘fled the country sensing the impending nature of the police case and arrest’ following allegations of sexual exploitation of women. In a letter, Mr. Siddaramaiah has appealed for swift measures by the Union Government to ‘ensure the swift return of the absconding member of Parliament to face the full force of the law’.

This comes a day after Union Home Minister Amit Shah responded to Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi’s attack on the Centre that while the Prime Minister knows of the movements of all opposition leaders, ‘a criminal was allowed to flee the country’. Mr. Shah slammed the Congress government in Karnataka for delay in action against Prajwal Revanna, arguing law and order is a State subject. 

As Congress upped the ante against the BJP, arguing that the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) gave Prajwal Revanna a ticket from Hassan despite knowing about the sexual abuse videos, the case turn into a hot political issue in the ongoing phase 3 of the Lok Sabha polls, in which 14 seats in Karnataka will go to polls on May 7.

In response to this charge, Mr. Siddaramaiah has said that the “constitution of the SIT was done as soon as the true nature of the alleged crimes against several women emerged, and the victims came forward to file a complaint against Prajwal Revanna. An FIR was lodged on April 28.” 

Saying that Prajwal Revanna has fled the country on April 27, the Chief Minister wrote that they had learnt that he is travelling abroad on his diplomatic passport. Mr. Siddaramaiah has urged the Prime Minister to ‘move the Ministries of External Affairs and Home Affairs to take swift action to cancel the diplomatic passport of Prajwal Revanna, and to take such other steps using diplomatic and police channels of the government of India as well as international police agencies to ensure the swift return of the absconding member of Parliament to face the full force of the law’. He said that the SIT probing the case will provide all the necessary details and fulfil all the necessary legal formalities in this regard.

“While the SIT is working round-the-clock to investigate the allegations of crimes against several women by Prajwal Revanna, getting him back to the country is of utmost importance so that he faces the investigation and trial as per the law of the land,” Chief Minister Siddaramaiah wrote.