Modi ally accused of sexually abusing multiple women on video arrested

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Louise Thomas

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An Indian lawmaker from a key ally of Narendra Modi’s ruling party has been arrested a month after he escaped to Germany following allegations that he sexually abused several women.

Prajwal Revanna, 33, member of parliament from Hassan in the southern Karnataka state and scion of an influential political family, was arrested after he returned from Germany early on Friday.

Mr Revanna is seeking a second term as an MP for his Janata Dal Secular party, an ally of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party. He’s the grandson of former prime minister HD Deve Gowda, son of Karnataka legislator HD Revanna and nephew of former state chief minister HD Kumaraswamy.

Shortly before voting in Hassan on 26 April, and not long after Mr Modi had campaigned for Mr Revanna, thousands of videos of the MP allegedly abusing women emerged, sparking outrage in the country.

Mr Revanna rejected the allegations as a “political conspiracy” but fled the country the day after voting ended in his constituency.

He landed at the Bengaluru airport on a Lufthansa flight from Munich early on Friday and was arrested by a special police team designated to investigate the charges against him.

He will be produced in court where the police are likely to seek his custody to interrogate him, The Hindu reported.

In a video released earlier this week, the MP said he would return to India on 31 May to face the investigation.

“I am confident I will emerge from these false cases through the court,” he said, apologising to his family and the people of his state.

Allegations of sexual abuse against Mr Revanna first emerged in June last year but he obtained a court order preventing the media from reporting on what were called as “morphed videos”.

Five days before the election in Hassan, however, thousands of pen drives containing 2,960 videos of the MP allegedly abusing women were distributed in public places such as bus stands and parks.

The videos were reportedly shot by Mr Revanna himself and showed the faces of the women that he allegedly abused.

One of the women filed a police complaint on 28 April and accused the MP of raping her between 1 January 2021 and 25 April 2024.

She alleged that the politician threatened to release the videos of the assault if she went public with her allegation. She later said she and her husband were forced to leave Hassan following her police complaint.

Three more women have approached police with similar complaints since.

Police have booked the MP as well as his father on charges of sexual harassment, intimidation and outraging the dignity of a woman.

The sexual abuse scandal has been one of the top issues of the election campaign in Karnakata.

Mr Modi’s party has distanced itself from the controversy: “We, as a party, have nothing to do with the videos and neither do we have any comments to make on the SIT probe announced by the state government into the alleged sex scandal involving Prajwal Revanna.”