BJP leader linked to Prajwal video leak arrested in harassment case

BJP LEADER G Devaraje Gowda, whohasbeenlinkedtotheleakof sexualassaultvideosallegedlyinvolvingjd(s)mpprajwalrevanna, wasarrestedonmay11overa40day-old sexual harassment complaint against him. He has been senttojudicialcustodyfor14days.

On April 1, a woman lodged a complaint of sexual harassment against Gowda, an advocate from Holenarasipura region of Karnataka's Hassan district. A day earlier, the woman's husband had filed an SC/ST atrocity case against the BJP leader.

Gowda had moved a Hassan district court on May 8 seeking

Devaraje Gowda also booked under the SC/ST Act

anticipatory bail in both cases.

Hassan police said Gowda was arrested in the 40-day-old case “on basis of a fresh statement from the victim”.

Two days before his arrest, Gowda had mentioned the two cases against him during a press conference where he accused state Congress leaders of “leaking the sex videos of Prajwal”, the NDA candidate from Hassan Lok Sabha seat, ahead of the April 26 election in the constituency. He also claimed that the women seen in the leaked videos were being threatened for extortion.

Gowda was summoned and questioned once by the SIT probing the Prajwal videos as the BJP leader has been accused of leaking them. Gowda, however, has claimed that the tapes were not leaked by him but by Karthik N, a former driver for Prajwal.

In the sexual harassment case against Gowda, the complainant alleged that the BJP leader promised to help her with funds for building a house on a small plot she owned with her husband in Hassan but began seeking sexual favours. The woman’s husband accused Gowda of abusing them using their caste identity.