The Supreme Court on Friday declined to interfere with anticipatory bail granted by the Karnataka High Court to Bhavani Revanna, mother of JD-S leader and sex video scandal case prime accused Prajwal Revanna.
Prajwal Revanna is also the grandson of party supremo and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda.
Dismissing the Special Leave Petition filed by the Karnataka SIT seeking cancellation of the pre-arrest bail, a bench headed by Justice Surya Kant said, “If the investigation is prejudiced or derailed with the grant of anticipatory bail, we are with you (on cancellation of bail). But, now the investigation is over and the charge sheet has been filed”.
The Bench, also comprising Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, refused to examine the SIT’s contention that the accused, belonging to a “very influential political family”, may influence the conduct of a fair trial, warranting cancellation of bail.
“We do not want to go into that issue. These are like double-edged swords. Sometimes, because of ‘politics’, people are entangled. Sometimes, people misuse their political position and commit crimes. But, these all are issues to be gone into by the trial court. For us to say anything at this stage, will be very very difficult,” the apex court said.
Noting that a charge sheet has already been filed in the case and the principal accused (Prajwal Revanna) has been arrested and subjected to custodial interrogation, the SC declined to interfere with the anticipatory bail granted to Bhavani Revanna.
Earlier in July, the top court, after much persuasion, agreed to examine the Karnataka SIT’s plea and called for a response from Bhavani Revanna, who is the daughter-in-law of former Prime Minister Deve Gowda.
Observing that the matter pertains to the liberty of a woman, whose guilt is to be determined during trial, the apex court cautioned that the issue need not be politicised and inquired about the role attributed to Prajwal Revanna's mother.
In response, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the state SIT, submitted that the victim in her statement recorded under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) described the role of Bhavani Revanna in abducting her.
The Karnataka High Court, on June 18, had allowed Bhavani Revanna’s anticipatory bail petition in a kidnapping case linked to the sex video scandal. As a condition for granting the anticipatory bail, a bench headed by Justice Krishna S. Dixit restricted her entry into the Mysuru and Hassan districts.
The victim in the kidnap case hails from the Mysuru district while Hassan is the native district of Bhavani Revanna. In its order, the Karnataka High Court said that Bhavani Revanna had answered 85 questions asked by the police and, hence, the argument of her non-cooperation with the probe cannot be accepted.
Bhavani Revanna is currently appearing before the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in connection with the kidnap case of a maid, who allegedly suffered sexual assault at the hands of Prajwal Revanna and her husband, JD-S legislator, H.D. Revanna.
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