Bengaluru: A special court in Bengaluru, on Saturday, sentenced former Member of Parliament and suspended Janata Dal (Secular) leader Prajwal Revanna to life imprisonment for rape.
The court also fined him Rs 10 lakh. Of this sum, Rs 7 lakh will be paid as compensation to the rape survivor.
Revanna, grandson of former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda was convicted on Friday by Judge Santosh Gajanan Bhat of the court designated to handle cases involving MPs and MLAs, both present and past. This marks the first judgment in a series of four rape and sexual assault cases pending against the 34-year-old politician.
On Saturday, before the sentencing, the prosecution sought the maximum punishment, arguing that the severity of the offence warranted a life term.
This involves the rape of a 48-year-old domestic worker employed at the Revanna family’s Gannikada farmhouse in Holenarasipura, located in Karnataka’s Hassan district. The victim was allegedly assaulted twice in 2021, first at the farmhouse and later at a residence in Bengaluru. According to the charges, Revanna also recorded the assaults on his mobile phone.
The crime was committed when Revanna was the MP of Hassan Constituency. He was arrested in 2024 from the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru.
The sentencing took place barely 14 months after the case was registered, with the trial being conducted at a remarkable pace. After being declared guilty on Friday, Revanna broke down and was seen crying as he left the courtroom.
During the course of the investigation and trial, the survivor submitted a saree as physical evidence, which she had preserved. Forensic analysis later confirmed the presence of sperm on the saree, which was presented in court and accepted as key evidence in establishing the rape.
The case was registered under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2008. The CID’s Special Investigation Team (SIT), collected 123 pieces of evidence during the course of the investigation and submitted a voluminous charge sheet spanning nearly 2,000 pages.
The trial commenced on December 31, 2024. Over the next seven months, the court examined 23 witnesses and reviewed key forensic reports of the video clips, as well as spot inspection reports from the scene of the crime.