Bengaluru, May 7 (IANS): Former Karnataka chief minister and JD(S) state President H D Kumaraswamy alleged on Tuesday that the Congress government circulated pen drives containing videos of women being sexually assaulted allegedly by his nephew and the sitting party MP from Hassan, Prajwal Revanna, through police officers in the middle of the Lok Sabha elections in the state.
Prajwal Revanna, who is on the run, is the grandson of former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda.
Speaking to the media on Tuesday, Kumaraswamy claimed that on April 21, the distribution of pen drives was not confined to just the Hassan Lok Sabha constituency, as they were systematically circulated in the Mandya and Bengaluru Rural Lok Sabha seats.
Kumaraswamy also claimed that more than 25,000 pen drives were circulated through police officers to defeat the JD-S candidates in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.
While Kumaraswamy is the NDA candidate from Mandya, C.N. Manjunath, the son-in-law of H.D. Deve Gowda, is contesting from the Bengaluru Rural seat on a BJP ticket against D.K. Suresh of the Congress, the younger brother of Deputy CM D.K. Shivakumar.
Kumaraswamy also claimed that he is not trying to protect anyone in the case, as the guilty must be punished without any compromise.
A police complaint has been lodged against a JD(S) polling agent for allegedly making the contents of the pen drive public, which also names four others -- Naveen Gowda, Karthik Gowda, Chetan, and Putti a.k.a. Puttaraju.
Though the complaint was registered 15 days back, the SIT did not bother to call them for an inquiry, Kumaraswamy said.
Meanwhile, G.T. Deve Gowda, the JD(S) core committee chief, held a press conference in Mysuru on Tuesday, where he warned that if D.K. Shivakumar is not sacked from the Cabinet or made to resign from his post as Deputy CM, the JD-S will launch protests across Karnataka.
Claiming that the SIT can't ensure a fair probe into the matter, he said: “This government won’t agree to transfer the case to the CBI. Hence, we demand a judicial probe into the matter."
The statements made by Congress leaders confirm the role of Shivakumar in the case, he claimed.