Deve Gowda, wife upset by allegations of sexual abuse against Prajwal: HD Kumaraswamy
Raichur (Karnataka), May 3: Former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy on Friday said his 90-year-old father and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda and mother Chennamma were in "pain" following the alleged sexual abuse of several women by his nephew and MP Prajwal Revanna.
The JD(S) leader lashed out at Chief Minister Siddaramaiah for accusing him and Deve Gowda of consulting lawyers regarding the legal fight to protect the Hassan MP, and said he does not have humanity.
"I want to ask the chief minister of this state whether he has any respect for parents -- I don't know from what culture you (CM) have come from. Today you have posted a statement on twitter (now X) stating that -- on one hand Gowda and Kumaraswamy say that the accused must be punished while on the other hand they have called the lawyer to Gowda's house to discuss on how to save the accused (Prajwal) and set things right legally," Kumaraswamy said.
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"This chief minister doesn't have humanity," he told reporters here. "I don't want to speak about his (CM) family to take protection... My parents are in pain. To give them confidence so that things don't affect their life, to comfort them, I was with them in their house in Bengaluru both yesterday and day before yesterday."
He further said, "Get video recordings from media persons stationed in front of our houses and see, Mr Siddaramaiah, as to which lawyer came to our house and how we discussed saving the accused", Kumaraswamy said, addressing the chief minister.
"You may not have respect for parents, you may not have come from that culture. For me, my parents are important. I know about (my father's) 60 years of political life, and how my mother (Chennamma) has led her life," he said.
The 33-year-old Prajwal Revanna is the son of H D Deve Gowda's elder son H D Revanna, who is an MLA and a former minister. Prajwal is the BJP-JD(S) alliance's candidate from Hassan, which went to the polls on April 26.
Explicit video clips allegedly involving Prajwal Revanna sexually abusing several women had started making the rounds in Hassan in recent days. The state government has constituted a SIT to investigate the allegations against the MP.
Kumaraswamy also flayed attempts at dragging Deve Gowda's name into the issue.
"You might not know or have forgotten how he (Deve Gowda) has led his life. We have said several times now: whoever has done wrong should face punishment. Still such statements are being made," he added.
Siddaramaiah, the 'bete noire' of Deve Gowda, was together with the JD(S) patriarch for a long time politically as part of the Janata Dal and JD(S) before he joined the Congress.
Siddaramaiah on Friday alleged that Deve Gowda and Kumaraswamy were consulting lawyers.
"Kumaraswamy and Deve Gowda, who said that they don't have anything to do with (developments in) Revanna's family, have called a lawyer to their house and have held discussions. When they went for the election campaign, they said that 'I am not different, Prajwal Revanna is not different. They all do political and sinful acts together," the chief minister alleged.
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Actress sexual assault: Court says Prosecution 'miserably' failed to prove conspiracy against Dileep
Kochi (PTI): The prosecution had "miserably" failed to prove the conspiracy charge against Dileep in the sensational 2017 actress sexual assault case, a local court has observed while citing inconsistencies and lack of sufficient evidence against the Malayalam star.
The full judgement of Ernakulam District and Principal Sessions Court Judge Honey M Varghese was released late on Friday, and has revealed the judge also pointing out at unsustainable arguments put forth by the prosecution.
"The prosecution miserably failed to prove the conspiracy between accused No.1 (Pulsar Suni) and accused No.8 (Dileep) in executing the offence against the victim," the court held.
It examined in detail, the prosecution's allegation that Dileep had hired the prime accused to sexually assault the survivor and record visuals, including close-up footage of a gold ring she was wearing, to establish her identity.
On page 1130 of the judgment, under paragraph 703, the court framed the issue as whether the prosecution's contention that NS Sunil (Pulsar Suni) recorded visuals of the gold ring worn by the victim at the time of the occurrence, so as to clearly disclose her identity, was sustainable.
The prosecution contended Dileep and Suni had planned the recording so that the actress' identity would be unmistakable, with the video of the gold ring intended to convince Dileep that the visuals were genuine.
However, the court noted that this contention was not stated in the first charge sheet and was introduced only in the second one.
As part of this claim, a gold ring was seized after the victim produced it before the police.
The court observed that multiple statements of the victim were recorded from February 18, 2017, following the incident, and that she first raised allegations against Dileep only on June 3, 2017.
Even on that day, nothing was mentioned about filming of the ring as claimed by the prosecution, the court said.
The prosecution failed to explain why the victim did not disclose this fact at the earliest available opportunities.
It further noted that although the victim had viewed the sexual assault visuals twice, she did not mention any specific recording of the gold ring on those occasions, which remained unexplained.
The court also examined the approvers' statements.
One approver told the magistrate that Dileep had instructed Pulsar Suni to record the victim's wedding ring.
The court observed that no such wedding ring was available with her at that time.
During the trial, the approver changed his version, the court said.
The Special Public Prosecutor put a leading question to the approver on whether Dileep had instructed the recording of the ring, after which he deposed that the instruction was to record it to prove the victim's identity.
The court observed that the approver changed his account to corroborate the victim's evidence.
When the same question was put to another approver, he repeated the claim during the trial but admitted he had never stated this fact before the investigating officer.
The court noted that the second approver even went to the extent of claiming Dileep had instructed the execution of the crime as the victim's engagement was over.
This showed that the evidence of the second approver regarding the shooting of the ring was untrue, as her engagement had taken place after the crime.
The court further observed that the visuals themselves clearly revealed the victim's identity and that there was no need to capture images of the ring to establish identity.
In paragraph 887, the court examined the alleged motive behind the crime and noted that in the first charge sheet, the prosecution had claimed that accused persons 1 to 6 had kidnapped the victim with the common intention of capturing nude visuals to extort money by threatening to circulate them and there was no mention about Dileep's role in it.
The court also rejected the prosecution's claim that the accused had been planning the assault on Dileep's instructions since 2013, noting that the allegation was not supported by reliable evidence.
It similarly ruled out the claim that Suni attempted to sexually assault the victim in Goa in January 2017, stating that witness statements showed no such misconduct when he served as the driver of the vehicle used by the actress there.
The court also discussed various controversies that followed Dileep's arrest and the evidence relied upon by the prosecution, ultimately finding that the case had not been proved.
Pronouning its verdict on the sensational case on December 8, the court acquitted Dileep and three others.
Later, the court sentenced six accused, including the prime accused Suni, to 20 years' rigorous imprisonment.
The assault on the multilingual actress, after the accused allegedly forced their way into her car and held it under their control for two hours on February 17, 2017, had shocked Kerala.
Pulsar Suni sexually assaulted the actress and video recorded the act with the help of the other convicted persons in the moving car.
