Don’t test my patience: Deve Gowda warns grandson, ‘return and face probe’
New Delhi, May 23: The Ministry of External Affairs is processing a request by the Karnataka government to cancel the diplomatic passport of Prajwal Revanna, the suspended Janata Dal (Secular) MP who is accused of sexual abuse of several women and is believed to be in Germany now.
Official sources said the MEA has begun the process to revoke Prajwal’s passport after receiving a letter from the Karnataka government.
Prajwal, the grandson of former prime minister HD Deve Gowda, is at the centre of a mass sexual abuse case and the Hassan MP left India on April 27, a day after voting for the Lok Sabha elections took place in his constituency.
“The MEA has received a letter from the Karnataka government for cancellation of diplomatic passport in respect of MP Prajwal Revanna. This is being processed. This is being processed,” a source said. It is learnt that the MEA is undertaking the process to cancel Prajwal’s diplomatic passport under the provisions of the Passports Act of 1967 as well as related regulations.
If the passport is cancelled, then Prajwal’s stay abroad will be illegal and he may face legal action by authorities concerned in the country he is staying, a person familiar with the matter said.
On Wednesday, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah wrote a second letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to take “prompt and necessary” action to cancel Prajwal’s diplomatic passport. The chief minister sent a similar letter to the prime minister on May 1. The SIT set up by the Karnataka government to probe the sexual abuse charges against Prajwal wrote to the MEA to cancel his diplomatic passport after an arrest warrant was issued against him by a local court. A ‘Blue Corner Notice’ seeking information on Revanna’s whereabouts has already been issued by the Interpol following a request by the SIT.
Meanwhile, JD(S) patriarch and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda on Thursday issued a ‘stern warning’ to his grandson and suspended party MP, Prajwal Revanna, asking him to return to the country and face probe into sexual abuse allegations, while asserting there will be no interference from him or other family members into the enquiry. He asked Prajwal, the party’s Hassan MP who is facing allegations of sexual harassment of many women, to return to India and surrender before the police. Prajwal had flown reportedly to Germany in the last week of April.
The JD(S) supremo reiterated that his grandson should be given the harshest punishment under the law “if found guilty”. “At this juncture, I can do only one thing; I can issue a stern warning to Prajwal and ask him to return from wherever he is and surrender before the police. He should subject himself to the legal process,” the 92-year-old veteran politician said. Gowda made it clear it was “not an appeal that I am making, it is a warning that I am issuing”. (PTI)