SC upholds anticipatory bail to Bhavani Revanna

New Delhi, Oct 18: The Supreme Court on Friday refused to set aside the anticipatory bail given to Bhavani Revanna, the mother of suspended JD(S) leader and rape accused Prajwal Revanna, in a kidnapping case while dismissing the Karnataka government’s plea.
In a setback to the Karnataka government, a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan took into account that the chargesheet had been filed in the case and refused to interfere with the Karnataka High Court order.
During the hearing, the state government counsel, claimed the mother was directly involved in allegedly procuring women for her son. The apex court noted that the principal accused in the case had been arrested and put under custodial interrogation.
After the Karnataka government sought the cancellation of the anticipatory bail to Bhavani, the top court on July 10, refused to set it aside and sought her response.
The high court had on June 18 granted anticipatory bail to Bhavani emphasising she had already answered 85 questions during the investigation, making it unfair to claim she was not cooperating with the special investigation team (SIT) probing the alleged sexual abuse cases against her son.
The SIT had sought her custody in connection with the purported kidnapping of a house-help in K R Nagar in Mysuru district after she failed to appear for questioning. The high court while granting the pre-arrest bail said media trials should be avoided and highlighted the state’s allegations of non-cooperation were unconvincing since Bhavani had already provided extensive responses during her interrogation. The court dismissed the SIT’s argument that she had given misleading answers.
On June 7, with the reprieve the high court prevented Bhavani from entering Mysuru and Hassan districts while extending the embargo on June 14. (PTI)