The Congress on Monday took a sharp dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the alleged sex scandal of JD(S) MP Prajwal Revanna, and accused the BJP leadership of shielding its Karnataka ally for political gains.
Revanna, an NDA Lok Sabha candidate and the grand son of JD(S) chief HD Deve Gowda, is accused of sexually assaulting several women, including his cook.
The cook has filed a case against Prajwal who has reportedly fled abroad.
Addressing a press conference, Laxmi Hebbalkar, the women and child welfare minister in the Karnataka government, claimed that hundreds of girls and women, including minors, have faced sexual harassement by Revanna.
Refering to PM Modi’s recent “mangalsutra” attack on the Congress, Hebbalkar said, “Prime minister Narendra Modi is talking about the protection of mangalasutras of Hindu women. Are these women not Hindus? What about their mangalasutras? PM should speak.”
She also claimed that “hundreds of girls and women, from the age of 16 to 60 years, have faced sexual harassment at the hands of MP Prajwal Revanna.”
“There are even some police officials and anganwadi workers apart from SC/ST women, labourers and maids,” she added.
The Karnataka minister also challenged the BJP to state protest against Revanna and make its stand on the issue clear.
She also urged the Narendra Modi government at the Centre to bring back Revanna with the help of Interpol.
Meanwhile, the Karnataka government has formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe charges against the JD(S) MP, who is also the NDA’s joint candidate from Hassan constituency.