BENGALURU: Former Karnataka minister HD Revanna, who was arrested for allegedly abducting a sex abuse victim of his son Prajwal Revanna, was remanded in seven days’ judicial custody on May 8. His three-day police custody ended on May 8, according to reports. He was produced in the XVII Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court. Judge Ravindrakumar B Kattimani remanded him in seven days’ judicial custody. Janata Dal (Secular) leader Revanna, who was detained by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in the kidnapping case last week, has been sent to judicial custody till May 14. Revanna on Tuesday failed to get relief from the special court for elected representatives, which had adjourned his bail plea hearing for Wednesday.

Revanna, son of JD(S) patriarch and former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, and his confidant Sathish Babanna were booked on Thursday night for allegedly abducting a woman on April 29. The case was registered on a complaint filed by the woman’s son, who alleged that his mother was sexually abused by Revanna’s son and JD(S) MP Prajwal Revanna. The SIT has also secured the custody of Babanna.

The woman was allegedly abducted to prevent her from testifying against Prajwal, police sources said.

The explicit videos of the alleged sexual abuse of women by Prajwal had been making the rounds on social media based on which the state government formed the SIT on April 28 to probe the case after the Karnataka State Commission for Women wrote a letter to the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

The 33-year-old Prajwal, who was the NDA candidate in the Hassan Lok Sabha constituency, reportedly left the country on April 27, a day after the elections, and skipped the SIT summons to appear before it.

Interpol has issued a Blue Corner notice against the absconding MP, who is facing sexual abuse charges.

Meanwhile, Congress leader and Karnataka’s deputy chief minister, DK Shivakumar on Wednesday accused HD Kumaraswamy of plotting to circulate thousands of USB flash drives containing the purported explicit videos of the latter’s nephew, Prajwal Revanna.

Shivakumar has blamed Kumaraswamy for the scandal. A day after the JD(S) leader accused him of circulating 25,000 USB flash drives before the parliamentary elections, Shivakumar called the former Karnataka chief minister the “king of blackmailing”. Shivakumar said Kumaraswamy was the “lead, director and producer of the story”. He claimed Kumaraswamy knew about the flash drives. – Agencies