Prajwal Revanna spends night at SIT office

BENGALURU: 33-year-old Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna, who was arrested by the SIT from the Kempegowda International Airport in the wee hours of Friday around 1.10 am, was brought by a team of women SIT officials in a police jeep to the SIT office located in CID on Palace Road around 2.02 am. He spent the night in the SIT office.

The Hassan MP will be taken for the mandatory medical check-up in the morning. The medical tests will be done at the Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital in Shivanagar.

As soon as the suspended JD(S) MP landed at the Bengaluru airport, there was a posse of women police personnel led by women IPS officers waiting to execute the arrest warrant against him in sexual assault cases.

During the procedure of executing the arrest warrant, he was flanked by the women police, who were led by two IPS officers, Suman D Pennekar and Seema Latkar. The Hassan MP was then taken in a jeep in which only women police were there. They took him to the CID office.

“It was a conscious call to send all women officers to arrest Prajwal, sending home a message that the JD(S) leader exploited his seat and power as an MP with women. The same women have authority to arrest him through all legal proceedings,” a source in the SIT said.

There was also a symbolic message to the victims that women officers were not afraid of anyone, the source said.

On Friday morning, he will be produced in an open court. In all possibilities, the SIT will seek custody of the Hassan MP since he has to be taken for spot mazhars at the MP quarters in Hassan and also to the farm house in Holenarasipur where the alleged rape incidents are said to have happened. The SIT officials will also have to record his detailed statements.

The SIT officials were on the lookout for Prajwal for almost 34 days.

Three FIRs, including two rape cases, have been registered against him. An arrest warrant has also been issued against him. A Blue Corner notice was issued against him by the CBI through INTERPOL. Two regular notices were also issued by the SIT.

On Monday, Prajwal had released a 2.57-minute video claiming to appear before the SIT on Friday morning at 10 am. He flew from Munich on Thursday afternoon and landed at the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru in the wee hours of Friday at 12.50 am.

Elaborate security arrangements were made outside the SIT office and even at the Bowring Hospital.

And in a joint operation on Tuesday night, officials of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) and Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) had visited the official residence of Prajwal to collect samples and fingerprints.

The joint search operation continued for 10 hours, until 4.50 AM on Wednesday. The FSL team has collected samples, such as beds, sheets, blankets, napkins and clothes, from all three bedrooms in the residence, where Prajwal had allegedly assaulted the women.