JDS suspends Prajwal Revanna over alleged sex scandal

Hubballi: The JD(S) on Tuesday suspended its Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna from the party over his alleged involvement in a sex scandal. The core committee of JD(S) recommended the suspension to the party's national President and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda. Prajwal is the BJP-JD(S) alliance's candidate from Hassan, which went to polls on Friday. 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.

"Regarding allegations on Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna, the Karnataka government has constituted a SIT and they have started the investigation. We welcome it. As the investigation is on and the report is still awaited, we have decided not to interfere in the process and extend full cooperation to the investigation," core committee chief and MLA G T Devegowda said.

Speaking to reporters after the core committee meeting, he said, "We have also made a unanimous resolution to suspend him (Prajwal) from the party, and have made a recommendation in this regard to our national President H D Deve Gowda. As he (Prajwal) is a Lok Sabha member our national president has to take action. We have asked him to immediately take action."

Some explicit video clips allegedly involving Prajwal Revanna had started making the rounds in Hassan recently. The government has constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the alleged sex scandal involving the MP. The core committee meeting was attended by state JD(S) President H D Kumaraswamy and other members. Kumaraswamy said the decision is to suspend Prajwal and the tenure of the suspension is based on the SIT probe report and government action on it. "We welcome the SIT probe. The suspension is until the SIT report on Prajwal's role comes out. If it comes in the report that he is guilty, he will be permanently suspended," he added.
(With PTI inputs.)