SC refuses to set aside anticipatory bail given to Bhavani Revanna

The Supreme Court on Wednesday, 10 July refused to set aside the anticipatory bail granted to Bhavani Revanna, the mother of suspended JD(S) MP and rape accused Prajwal Revanna, in a kidnapping case involving one of the victims of her son's alleged sexual assaults.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan issued notice to Revanna on the appeal filed by the Karnataka government challenging a Karnataka High Court order.

"The accused is a woman who is aged 55 years. There are serious allegations against her son of indulging in atrocious things. He ran away and eventually, he was caught.

"In a case of this kind of allegations, what will be the role of the mother in abetting the crime committed by her son?" the bench told senior advocate Kapil Sibal appearing for the Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up by the Karnataka government.

Sibal said the relief granted was the "most unfortunate" and the victim was under captivity on the directions of the family.

"There is nothing... let us not politicise the matter," the bench observed.

The high court had on 18 June granted anticipatory bail to Bhavani Revanna while emphasising that she had already answered 85 questions during the investigation, making it unfair to claim she was not cooperating with the SIT, which is probing the sexual abuse cases against her son.