SC adjourns Karnataka Govt's plea against pre-arrest bail to Bhavani Revanna

The Supreme Court on Friday adjourned for two weeks a Karnataka Government plea seeking the cancellation of anticipatory bail granted to Bhavani Revanna, the mother of suspended JD(S) leader and rape accused Prajwal Revanna, in a kidnapping case involving one of the victims allegedly sexually assaulted by her son.

A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan asked advocate Balaji Srinivasan, appearing for Revanna, to file an affidavit giving the details of the status of the case.

Srinivasan submitted that a chargesheet had been filed in the case, other accused had been granted bail and Bhavani Revanna had cooperated with the investigation.

The Bench said it would not go into the merits of the matter and asked Srinivasan to file an affidavit. The court then adjourned the matter for two weeks.

On July 10, the top court refused to set aside the anticipatory bail granted to Bhavani Revanna in the case and sought her response on the appeal filed by the Karnataka Government challenging the Karnataka High Court order.

The court had, on June 18, granted anticipatory bail to Bhavani Revanna while emphasising that she had already answered 85 questions during the investigation, making it unfair to claim that she was not cooperating with the SIT probing the sexual abuse cases against her son.

The SIT had sought her custody in connection with the kidnapping of a house-help at KR Nagar in Mysuru district after she failed to appear for questioning.

The court, while allowing Bhavani Revanna's petition seeking anticipatory bail, urged that media trials be avoided and underlined the importance of not making unnecessary arrests of women, noting their central role in families.

It had also highlighted that the allegations of non-cooperation were unconvincing since Bhavani Revanna had already provided extensive responses during her interrogation. The court dismissed the SIT's argument that she had given misleading answers.

On June 7, it granted interim anticipatory bail to her, with conditions preventing her from entering Mysuru and Hassan districts. It permitted the SIT to take her to Hassan and Mysuru districts for investigation.

Bhavani Revanna is accused of trying to prevent the victim, who was allegedly sexually assaulted by her son, from filing a complaint.

Prajwal Revanna is currently in SIT custody for allegedly sexually abusing several women and capturing the assaults on video.

The cases of sexual abuse came to light after pen drives containing explicit videos, allegedly involving Prajwal, were reportedly circulated in Hassan ahead of the Lok Sabha poll there on April 26.

SIT officials arrested him soon after he landed at Bengaluru's Kempegowda International Airport from Germany on May 31. He had left for Germany on April 27, a day after Hassan went to the polls.

A 'Blue Corner Notice' seeking information on his whereabouts had earlier been issued by Interpol, following a request by the SIT via the CBI.