Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Advocate G Devaraje Gowda was taken into custody by police near Hiriyur in Karnataka in a case of physical harassment and sexual abuse, on Friday. According to ANI, the police stated that Gawda was taken into custody while he was travelling to Chitradurga from Bengaluru.
Gowda has been in the news lately in connection with the alleged obscene video case involving Hassan JD(S) MP Prajwal Revanna. Last year, Gowda had flagged the matter with the BJP central leadership before it joined hands with Janata Dal (Secular).
As per the ANI report, police sources said that Gowda will be taken to Hassan district where the sexual harassment complaint was registered against him in April by a woman for further investigation.
Gowda has been booked under sections 354 (A), 354C, 448, 504, 506, 34 of the IPC and 66(E) of the Information Technology Act, 2008. The offences include assault or criminal force on a woman with intent to outrage her modesty, sexual harassment, voyeurism, house trespass, intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace and criminal intimidation.
The victim in her complaint, alleged that she was physically harassed and threatened by Gowda along with others. In the FIR in the case registered on April 1 for the offence that took place on February 4 at the victims’s house, in Holenarasipura town of Hassan. The FIR has named three others in the case apart from Deveraje Gowda.
Devaraje Gowda had earlier claimed writing to the BJP central leadership regarding the Prajwal Revanna matter, while the Karnataka BJP leadership dismissed the claims, calling it "patently false."
Prajwal Revanna and his father, HD Revanna, are facing a probe by a Special Investigative Team (SIT), constituted by the Karnataka government, over allegations of sexual harassment and criminal intimidation following a complaint by a woman who worked in their household, as per the ANI report.