Will surrender before SIT on May 31: Prajwal Revanna

Bengaluru: Janata Dal (Secular) Lok Sabha member Prajwal Revanna on Monday said that he would appear before the police on May 31 to face investigators in a case of alleged sexual abuse of women registered against him.

In a video message from an undisclosed location, the MP who is seeking re-election from Hassan in Karnataka, said he would appear before the special investigation team (SIT) probing the case at 10 am on that day.

Grandson of former prime minister HD Deve Gowda and son of senior JDS leader HD Revanna, the sitting MP fought the April 26 Lok Sabha polls as NDA candidate. He said he left the country on April 26, as per his scheduled tour plans, and a few days later, on learning about the developments from news channels, decided to seek a week's time to appear before the investigators.

But he went into depression after he heard the speech of Rahul Gandhi and other Congress leaders, targeting him in what looked like a "political conspiracy" against him, Prajwal Revanna said.

Sections of leaders in Hassan too were part of this conspiracy, he claimed. On the day he left the country, there was no case registered against him, the 33-year-old said.

While apologising to his parents, uncle HD Kumaraswamy and grandfather, Revanna Jr said he would cooperate with the police investigations while reposing his faith in the judiciary and expressing confidence that he would come out clean.

The MP has been under pressure to return as the ministry of external affairs has been working on cancelling his diplomatic passport as requested by chief minister Siddaramaiah.

Meanwhile, Karnataka deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar said the MP decided to surrender because he had run out of options. He also defended Gandhi's comments, saying that the Congress leader spoke based on the information he gathered from the media.

Revanna Jr's latest surprise video emerges a few days after Gowda, also the JDS national president, issued a stern warning to his grandson asking him to "return from wherever he was and surrender before the police".

"He should subject himself to the legal process," the former PM wrote in a two-page letter. "This is not an appeal that I am making, it is a warning that I am issuing. If he does not heed to this warning, he will have to face my anger and the anger of all his family members. The law will take care of the accusations against him, but not listening to the family will ensure his total isolation. If he has any respect left for me, he has to return immediately," the 91-year-old JDS leader said in the letter.

His MLA father, who represents Holenarasipur in the assembly, has been battling a case of alleged abduction of a sexual assault victim from her home in the Mysuru district. He walked out of jail in Bengaluru on May 14 after a special court granted him bail.