Guilty!

Strap: With Prajwal Revanna convicted of rape, the Gowda dynasty faces its deepest moral & political crisis

Blurb:

The JD(S) and the Gowda family are inseparable in public perception — a fact that makes distancing from Prajwal more complicated than a press release

Byline: Ashwin K

August 1 will remain etched in public memory as the day Karnataka politics was rocked to its core. Prajwal Prajwal — former JD(S) MP from Hassan and the grandson of former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda — was convicted of raping his domestic help at both his farmhouse and Bangalore residence. What began as a scandal has now ended in legal closure, but the political tremors are far from over.

The verdict has not only stunned the Gowda family but also left the Janata Dal (Secular) battling a full-blown image crisis. Though the party had suspended Prajwal soon after the allegations surfaced, the conviction has revived uncomfortable questions about accountability, silence, and complicity.

The JD(S) and the Gowda family are inseparable in public perception — a fact that makes distancing from Prajwal more complicated than a press release. Both HD Deve Gowda and HD Kumaraswamy have maintained silence, even as Nikhil Kumaraswamy scrambled to contain the damage by reiterating that the party had already cut ties with the disgraced MP.

As the dust settles, Our Bangalore dives deep into how this moment could shape — or shake — the future of the JD(S) and its hold on Karnataka’s political psyche.

The beginning

The case first exploded into public view in April 2024, when a series of graphic videos allegedly showing Prajwal sexually assaulting his 48-year-old domestic worker surfaced online. While he vehemently denied the charges, claiming the footage was doctored and politically motivated, the outrage was swift and widespread. Protests erupted across Karnataka and beyond, with mounting calls for his immediate arrest.

Despite the growing clamour, Prajwal managed to flee the country using a diplomatic passport. From abroad, he continued to dismiss the allegations as a smear campaign orchestrated by his political rivals. But the public pressure refused to die down.

In response, the Karnataka government constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT), led by an all-women squad, to probe the allegations. By late April, both Prajwal and his father were booked on charges of sexual assault and harassment. On April 30, the JD(S) announced Prajwal’s suspension and issued a statement declaring him an absconding MP, attempting to distance the party from the scandal.

Prajwal was finally arrested on May 31 upon landing in Bangalore from Frankfurt. He was denied bail by the Special Court for MP-MLAs, and later, both the High Court and the Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s decision.

In the weeks that followed, the SIT filed detailed charge sheets. A crucial breakthrough came in November when forensic tests confirmed Prajwal’s DNA on the victim’s undergarments. The trial began earlier this year in a fast-tracked Special Court and concluded within a month. On August 1, the court convicted Prajwal on all charges, bringing a sensational chapter in Karnataka politics to a dramatic close.

What lies ahead

The conviction has deepened the crisis within the JD(S), coming at a time when the party is already on shaky political ground. With panchayat-level elections around the corner, the JD(S) finds itself struggling for relevance. Once a formidable regional force, the party was reduced to just 19 seats in the 2023 Karnataka Assembly elections — nearly halved from its earlier tally of 37. Since then, it has failed to stage a meaningful recovery.

Although the JD(S) managed to secure some ground in the recent Lok Sabha elections, those gains were widely seen as the result of strategic alliances rather than the party’s independent strength or grassroots connect.

At the heart of the JD(S)’s decline lies its overdependence on the Deve Gowda family. The party has long failed to nurture leadership beyond the family fold, and even within it, the generational baton seems to have faltered. Prajwal Revanna was once touted as the party’s next-gen face — young, ambitious, and politically sharp. But his conviction and life sentence have effectively ended any hopes of a comeback.

With its legacy dented and leadership vacuum exposed, the JD(S) now faces an existential question – can it reinvent itself beyond the shadow of the Gowda dynasty?

BOX –

A timeline of the events

• April 2024: Alleged videos of him sexually abusing his house-help surfaced on the internet.
• April 2024: Prajwal claimed the leak was politically motivated, aimed at derailing his chances of winning a Lok Sabha seat.
• April 27, 2024: The Karnataka government formed an SIT.
• April 28, 2024: Prajwal and his father, former minister H D Prajwal, were booked for sexual harassment.
• April 29, 2024: The complainant went missing.
• April 30, 2024: JD(S) suspended Prajwal from the party.
• May 2, 2024: Karnataka Police booked Prajwal on rape charges and issue lookout notices for the “absconding” MP.
• May 4, 2024: The former domestic worker rescued by the SIT.
• May 31, 2024: Prajwal was arrested by the SIT.
• June 26, 2024: The Special Court for MPs and MLAs denied bail to Prajwal.
• July 5, 2024: Prajwal moved the Karnataka High Court seeking bail.
• August 23, 2024: The SIT filed the first chargesheet in the case.
• September 9, 2024: The SIT submitted a second chargesheet.
• November 2, 2024: Prajwal’s DNA was found on the undergarments of the alleged rape survivor.
• November 11, 2024: The Supreme Court rejected Prajwal’s bail plea.
• May 2, 2025: Trial began in the rape case filed by the former domestic worker.
• July 18, 2025: Trial concluded; the court reserved its verdict for July 30.
• July 30, 2025: The Special Court seeks clarification and adjourns the case to August 1.
• August 1, 2025: The Special Court convicted Prajwal of rape.