Bhavani Revanna.
Credit: DH Photo
Bhavani Revanna, mother of rape-accused former MP Prajwal Revanna, appeared before the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Friday, in connection with the Hassan sex abuse case.
Bhavani arrived at the SIT office in the CID headquarters shortly after the High Court of Karnataka granted her conditional anticipatory bail and ordered her to appear before the SIT’s investigating officer at 1 pm on Friday and cooperate in the investigation.
Well-placed sources said that the SIT suspects that Bhavani “plotted” the kidnap of an elderly woman, who later accused Prajwal of repeated rape. The probe team has also arrested Bhavani’s car driver, the sources added.
Bhavani’s husband and JD(S) MLA H D Revanna was arrested in the same case on May 4 and was released on bail on May 20. Bhavani is under the scanner in the same case though the FIR doesn’t name her.
On May 31, the special court rejected Bhavani’s anticipatory bail application, saying the prosecution has made out a prima facie case against her.The case was registered on May 2 at the KR Nagar police station in Mysuru, where the elderly woman’s 20-year-old son accused Revanna and his aide Sathish Babanna of kidnapping her. Babanna was subsequently arrested and the woman was rescued by the SIT from a farmhouse at Kalenahalli village in Mysuru’s Hunsur taluk.
“Nearly three to four days before the Lok Sabha election, Sathish Babanna, who is known to us and hails from our native place, took my mother to Holenarasipura, saying Bhavani Revanna, wife of MLA Revanna, had asked for her,” the complainant alleged, adding that Babanna dropped her back on April 26, the day of the polls in southern Karnataka.
Hearing in HC
Earlier in the day, the high court heard Bhavani’s request for interim anticipatory bail. Her counsel said she apprehended arrest because the SIT had obtained an arrest warrant against her from the special court.
In response, the SIT informed the court that the arrest warrant was obtained because Bhavani was the “mastermind” in the case and her custodial interrogation was necessary.
Passing the orders, Justice Krishna Dixit kept the arrest warrant in abeyance and stated that in the guise of investigation, Bhavani should not be retained in the office of the investigation officer after 5 pm.
The court also asked Bhavani not to enter KR Nagar taluk or Hassan district and cautioned her against celebrating the order, noting she was only granted bail and not an award.
The hearing has been adjourned until June 14.