BENGALURU: The Karnataka Police on Sunday arrested Janata Dal (Secular) MLC Suraj Revanna, the brother of sexual assault-accused Prajwal Revanna, in connection with a sexual assault case filed by a male party worker for allegedly sexually abusing him a few days ago and he has been booked under different sections of the IPC, including “unnatural offences.”

Suraj was arrested when he was present at the Cyber Economic and Narcotics Crime (CEN) police station in Hassan in connection with a blackmail case filed by him and one of his acquaintances, Shivakumar, against the complainant. The Karnataka government later transferred the case to the state’s Crime Investigation Department.

The 27-year-old man had complained to the police that Suraj, the eldest son of Holenarasipura MLA H D Revanna, the grandson of former prime minister H D Deve Gowda and the nephew of Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy, sexually abused him at his farmhouse in Ghannikada on June 16. Based on the complaint, the Holenarasipura police registered a case against the JD-S MLC under IPC sections 377 (unnatural offences), 342 (wrongful confinement) and 506 (criminal intimidation) late on Saturday evening.

However, Suraj Revanna has categorically refuted the charge. Suraj had also alleged the man had filed a false complaint against him in a bid to extort Rs 5 crore from him. On Friday, police registered a case of extortion against the JD-S worker on a complaint by Suraj Revanna’s close aide Shivakumar. Shivakumar had alleged that the party worker was trying to extort money from Suraj Revanna by threatening to lodge a false case of sexual assault against him. It has been alleged that while the man demanded Rs 5 crore from Suraj Revanna, later it was reduced to Rs 2 crore.

Suraj’s brother and former JD(S) MP Prajwal Revanna was recently remanded to judicial custody by a special court. Prajwal, NDA’s Lok Sabha candidate from Hassan, had fled the country on April 27 after his videos allegedly sexually harassing multiple women had emerged. He was arrested by SIT officials upon his return on May 31 from Germany. 

Coincidentally, his mother, Bhavani Revanna, was arrested in a kidnapping case linked to a sexual harassment case, while his father, HD Revanna, was arrested in connection with two cases of kidnapping of an alleged victim of their son Prajwal’s sexual assaults.