Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka JD(S) MLA and former Minister H D Revanna, who is facing kidnapping charges, was remanded to judicial custody till May 14 by a Magisterial court here on Wednesday.

Also, his bail petition before a sessions court has been posted for Thursday.

After the completion of four days of police custody, the 66-year-old Revanna, son of JD(S) patriarch and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, was produced before an Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate. .

The court remanded him to judicial custody for seven days till May 14.

Revanna was in the custody of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) after being arrested in the alleged case of kidnapping a woman, based on a complaint by her son, who also charged that the MLA's son and MP Prajwal Revanna had sexually assaulted her. The woman was subsequently rescued, according to police.

The sexual abuse allegations involving Prajwal raised a political storm with the ruling Congress and BJP-JD(S) engaged in a slugfest.

While the Congress government has formed a SIT to probe the cases, the BJP and JD(S) -- NDA partners -- have demanded that it be handed over to the CBI.

Alleged explicit videos involving Prajwal started making the rounds ahead of the first phase of Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka on April 26.

The Chairperson of Karnataka State Commission for Women Chairperson Dr Nagalakshmi Chaudhary wrote to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and state police chief Alok Mohan seeking a probe into the videos that were in circulation in Hassan, following which the Congress government formed the SIT on April 28 to investigate the case.

Prajwal, who contested as the NDA candidate in the polls from Hassan, reportedly left the country on April 27, a day after the polls. He has skipped summons issued by the SIT to appear before it.

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Lucknow/Pratapgarh (UP) (PTI): Police have apprehended a 16-year-old boy for his alleged involvement in the rape and murder of a 19-year-old woman whose body was found hanging from a tree in a village here, officials said on Monday.

Additional Superintendent of Police (West), Brijnandan Rai, said that the body of a 19-year-old woman was found hanging from a tree in an orchard in the Manikpur police station area on Sunday morning. A post-mortem examination subsequently confirmed that she had been raped.

Police registered a case against unidentified persons under sections 103(1) (punishment for murder) and 70(1) (gangrape) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and initiated an investigation.

During the course of the investigation, the police found that the deceased was in contact with a juvenile who was also her relative.

Acting on this information, during a joint checking operation, sub-inspector Amit Kumar Singh of Manikpur police station and SOG In-charge Amit Kumar Chaurasia, along with their team, apprehended the 16-year-old near the Lehdari Ganga River bridge.

The search for other accused persons is ongoing, police said.

According to the police, the woman had gone to sleep after dinner on Saturday night but was found hanging in an orchard nearly 400 metres away from her home the following morning.

Additional Superintendent of Police (West), Brijnandan Rai, had earlier said that the circumstances suggest foul play.

"The victim's slippers and undergarments were recovered 50 metres away from the spot where the body was found. There are visible injury marks on her body," Rai said.

While locals have alleged that the woman was murdered after being raped, the ASP said that it is "prima facie a case of murder."

"Based on the complaint filed by the victim's brother, a case of murder has been registered against unidentified persons," the officer added.

Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, in a post on X in Hindi on Monday, said, "The news of the heinous murder of a Dalit daughter in Pratapgarh is deeply tragic and condemnable."

"The question remains: why does the spate of murders of 'PDA daughters' continue unabated in Uttar Pradesh? Are the BJP government's claims regarding women's safety merely hollow rhetoric, or is there, in fact, discrimination even in the provision of security for women?" he said.

"Whenever the 'wandering Honourable (ghumantu maananiye)' finds a moment of respite from election campaigning, he should cast a glance at the plight of the daughters of his own Uttar Pradesh. In any case, apart from injustice and oppression, no sister, daughter, or mother of this state holds any hope from you," Yadav added.