“World’s largest sexual abuse case,” Congress says of charges against Prajwal Revanna

Bengaluru: JD(S) MP Prajwal Revanna is accused in the “world’s biggest sexual abuse case”, the ruling Congress in Karnataka claimed on Wednesday, alleging an attempt to cover up the scandal by drawing attention to the publication Videos are controlled and those behind them.

The allegations were made by four ministers of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s cabinet at the Congress party office here to defend the government and its leadership after JD(S) deputy HD Kumaraswamy and BJP leader G Devaraje Gowda made allegations .

“Several issues are being discussed in the state, but when I look at the discussions, I feel that somewhere we have forgotten the background. To my knowledge, the discussion is about the largest sexual abuse case in the world. “I feel like he’s important to forget,” said Minister Krishna Byre Gowda, one of the four Cabinet members who spoke at a press conference.

Krishna Byre Gowda, Ramalinga Reddy, N Cheluvarayaswamy and MC Sudhakar have been deployed to defend Shivakumar – who is also the state Congress president -, the party and the government.

The opposition leaders of JD(S) and BJP had accused Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar of a role in circulating USB drives containing explicit video clips of Hassan MP Prajwal and several women who were allegedly sexually abused by him.

33-year-old Prajwal is Kumaraswamy’s nephew. The scandal triggered a political storm as the ruling Congress and the BJP-JD(S) traded blows.

While the Congress government has formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the cases, the BJP and JD(S) – NDA partners – have demanded that the cases be handed over to the CBI and action be taken against those behind it the widespread distribution of explicit videos.

Minister Gowda said, “I doubt if there is another case where so many Hindu women were snatched of ‘Mangalya’ (Mangalsutra) and families were broken, please let me know. This is the main case, there are allegations and they must be investigated, justice should be given to the victims and the guilty should be punished, that should be our goal.”

“But looking at the direction of the discussion, it seems that the focus is not on the main incident, but on how the incident came to light,” he said, adding that there appeared to be “attempts” to “To cover up the world’s largest case of sexual abuse” and to save the accused.

There was a “planned effort” and a “surgical operation” to cover up the case, Gowda further alleged, adding that diversion attempts were underway to shift the focus on how the case came to light.

Asked why Devaraje Gowda, BJP leader and lawyer, did not hand over the video clips in a sealed envelope to the police or court after receiving them for the first time, he said: “Instead, he used them for blackmail .” even met Kumaraswamy – whatever was discussed between them, let both of them come before Hasanamba Devi (Deity of Hassan) and swear before the god.”

He also alleged that the BJP, after “exploiting” the JD(S) in the Lok Sabha election, was doing everything to “finish off” the regional party, saying, “Since he (Kumaraswamy) is not against she (BJP) can speak, he is showing his anger that the Congress is accusing us of playing a role in releasing the videos…Did we ask to commit sexual abuse and record it?” he said. Gowda said the government was equally concerned about the circulation of video and photographic materials, saying that the more such materials circulated, the further the victims’ honor would be violated.

“SIT has issued a clear directive that any further distribution of these materials will be an offense and proceedings will be initiated against them. The government is very serious. While continuing to investigate the main case, the SIT is also taking measures to prevent further circulation (of the videos),” he added.

Minister Reddy said that the incident was actually due to the rift between the local leaders of the BJP and the JD(S) in Hassan and that the names of Shivakumar and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah were unnecessarily dragged into the incident.

Kumaraswamy or Revanna (Prajwal’s father) should have asked Prajwal to surrender, he said. “If they had informed him, the problem would not have arisen and the investigation would have revealed the truth anyway.”

Cheluvarayaswamy also accused the JD(S) leadership of diverting and politicizing the case while criticizing the regional party for protesting against the Congress government on the issue.

He targeted BJP and JD(S) leaders for unnecessarily blaming Shivakumar and also criticized BJP leader and Leader of Opposition R. Ashoka for claiming that Vokkaligas were being targeted in connection with the case .