JD-S, BJP distance themselves from Prajwal Revanna obscene video row

The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Janata Dal-Secular have distanced itself from sitting JD-S MP from Hassan Lok Sabha constituency, Prajwal Revanna amid the controversy over his alleged obscene videos.

While the BJP is contesting the ongoing Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka in alliance with the JD-S, Revanna is seeking a fresh term in the Lower House from Hassan and is pitted against the Congress' Shreyas Patel.

Former Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy on Monday said that if anyone is involved in any wrongdoing they will have to face punishment according to the provisions in the law.

Addressing a press conference in Shivamogga, Kumaraswamy questioned the timings of the release of the alleged videos.

"Three days ago who released it and why it was released now, why it wasn't released before? why the old issue has been released at the time of the elections? I won't about it at present, SIT has been formed, let the truth come out and punishment has to be borne by those who committed mistakes, as per the law of the land those who commit mistakes will have to face it," Kumaraswamy said.

He further said that the incident will not have much impact on the results of the Lok Sabha elections. Prajwal Revanna, the grandson of HD Deve Gowda is contesting Lok Sabha from Hassan.

"As far as election in Hassan election is concerned, we have first-hand information that our candidate will win. Everybody is saying that. SIT has been formed in the matter, let the truth come out, and it will not have any effect on the election results. Also, I want to ask Congress leaders why bringing family names into it and talk about that particular person. It is not a family issue. Why bring Kumaraswamy and Deve Gowda's names into it? There is no question of owning his mistake SIT has been formed and let the truth come out," he said.

When asked on the reports about Prajwal Revanna fleeing the country, HD Kumaraswamy said, "Will he ask me and go every day? Let government take the decision to bring him back, we didn't know anything about it before, they're living separately, I would have stopped everything if I had been aware of it, it's a personal individual issue, I can't check his moment every day. How can I check his moments every day?"

"It's an issue of Revanna's family, we have nothing to do with it, they are four living separately, if somebody had brought this issue, it would have been solved then itself," he added.

BJP's state unit chief spokesperson S Prakash said that the BJP has nothing to do with the videos and neither do we have any comments to make on the SIT probe announced by the state government

According to sources in the BJP, the party has chosen not to react officially to the alleged sleaze tape case as several of its senior leaders in the state are tight-lipped in the matter.

The Karnataka government on Sunday constituted a Special Investigation Team to probe an alleged sex scandal involving Prajwal Revanna, who is the grandson of Janata Dal-Secular supremo and former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda.

The move came following a letter by the chairperson of Women's Commission Dr Nagalakshmi Chowdhary to the government.

Some explicit video clips allegedly involving Prajwal had started making the rounds in Hassan in recent days.

The decision to constitute an SIT was announced by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.