Scores of pornographic videos and web series were discovered on the cell phone and a pen drive used by Prajwal Revanna, the former Janata Dal (Secular) MP, who is serving a life sentence in Bengaluru’s Parappana Agrahara Central Prison in connection with the rape case of a female househelp, the forensic examination of the seized electronic devices revealed.

The devices had been seized after the Crime branch officials allegedly found Revanna using a cell phone inside his prison cell during a surprise raid on August 11 this year. 

Alongside the cell phone, the Crime branch sleuths also recovered a charger and a notebook from the high-security barrack where Revanna was lodged. The grave findings have raised fresh questions over how a cell phone and other prohibited electronic devices made it to a high-security prison. 

Devices were sent for forensic examination

Following the raid, the seized cell phone and the pen drive were sent for forensic analysis. As per the report, the examination found dozens of pornographic videos on the phone, while web series was found stored on the pen drive. 

Personal cell phones, SIM cards and other electronic communication devices are prohibited inside prisons. Inmates are generally permitted to communicate through monitored institutional landlines, public call offices or designated video-calling facilities. 

After the devices were seized from Revanna’s possession, a jail official was suspended and the authorities also ordered an inquiry into how the device entered the prison. 

7 booked over allegedly supply of cell phone

In a parallel development, seven people, which include two prison personnel, have been booked over the alleged supply of a cell phone and SIM card to Revanna inside the prison. The ones against whom a case has been registered have been identified as Pratap Rao, Tausif, Siddiq and prison officials Prakash and Manjunath. The investigating police personnel are probing what they suspect was a wider network involving intermediaries, inmates and prison personnel. 

Parappana Agrahara police inspector B Naveen said the police believe the device was passed to Revanna by means of a chain involving inmates and prison personnel. 

Naveen said, “According to our investigation, the mobile phone allegedly reached Prajwal through intermediaries, including prison inmates and personnel. Siddiq and Taufiq, who were reportedly accused in the KG Halli and DJ Halli violence cases, are suspected to have assisted in arranging the device.” 

He added that the cops suspected Taufiq purchased the phone while undergoing treatment at Jayanagar Hospital, while a SIM card was allegedly procured in Siddiq’s name and was trafficked to the prison thereafter. 

The police suspect that Revanna paid around Rs 1 lakh for the cell phone and Rs 50,000 for the SIM card, and a probe into the case is still in progress. 

Revanna serving life sentence in rape case

Revanna was convicted last year of raping a 48-year-old woman and circulating videos of the sexual assault. The woman had worked as domestic help at the Revanna family’s farmhouse in Holenarasipura in Karnataka’s Hassan district. She alleged that Revanna repeatedly raped her from 2021 onwards and recorded the assaults, and further claimed that he threatened to make the videos public if she spoke about the abuse.

Notably, Revanna is the grandson of former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda and nephew of Union Minister HD Kumaraswamy. A separate case had earlier been registered at the Parappana Agrahara police station against two people over alleged illegal mobile phone use inside the prison. The latest investigation is now examining the wider chain through which electronic devices and SIM cards were allegedly brought into the facility.