Sex video & rape case: My continuous detention is unwarranted, Prajwal Revanna tells Karnataka HC
Bengaluru: Prajwal Revanna, the former Janata Dal-Secular MP and grandson of former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, who was convicted of life imprisonment in a sex video and rape case, said that his continued detention is unwarranted.
A division bench of Justice K.S. Mudagal and Justice T. Venkatesh Naik heard the appeal matter on Thursday and postponed the next hearing to November 24.
The bench asked Prajwal to submit the gist of his submissions to the court.
The bench also asked the prosecution to file objections by the next date of hearing.
Prajwal Revanna through his counsel also said that the prosecution’s case lacks strength, the evidence does not establish a clear connection, and therefore, his continued detention is unwarranted.
Senior counsel Siddharth Luthra, representating Prajwal Revanna, said that the conviction was announced on August 1, 2025, and the sentence was delivered on August 2.
He also said that Prajwal Prajwal should have been given a fair opportunity to be heard before sentencing, adding that if the court intended to impose the maximum punishment, he should at least have been allowed to present factors that might lessen the severity of the sentence.
“If the main foundation of the prosecution’s case is weak and the evidence does not clearly connect me to the alleged crime, then there is no valid reason to keep Prajwal in jail,” he added.
He also said that his first argument is the video evidence taken from open sources like social media or the Internet, which cannot be trusted.
He also added that the alleged offence was reported three to four years after it supposedly happened, and even when the victim came into contact with the police, there was still a delay in filing the complaint.
Additionally, he noted that the farmhouse where the alleged assault took place no longer exists and now belongs to someone else — implying that this makes it difficult to verify or investigate the claims.
He also said that the prosecution did not present the victim’s phone call records, which could have been used to verify the victim’s location during the time of the alleged incident.
He stressed that the recovery of clothes of victims from the farmhouse is questionable.
Prajwal Revanna, who was arrested in May 2024 after returning from Germany, is contesting the court judgment on several grounds, including what he claims are contradictions in the survivor’s testimony and inconsistencies in the evidence produced by the prosecution.
A special court that convicted Revanna had sentenced him to imprisonment for the remainder of his life and imposed fines, in one of the four sexual abuse and rape cases against him.