MYSURU: A day after External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that his ministry received a request to impound the diplomatic passport of Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna only on May 21, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah claimed that he had written the letter to MEA 15 days ago.
Prajwal, who is also the NDA candidate from the Hassan Lok Sabha seat, is facing probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by the state government over allegations of sexual harassment. Prajwal fled to Germany on April 27.
The CM told reporters that the State Government is yet to receive a reply from the Ministry of External Affairs. “If I had delayed sending the request, then why hasn’t the ministry acted on it,” he questioned.
He said the Centre should not buy time and act immediately to see that Prajwal’s diplomatic passport and visa are impounded, and necessary steps taken to bring him back to India. Siddaramaiah also took objection to state JDS president and former CM HD Kumaraswamy drawing parallels between his son Rakesh’s death and Prajwal case. Kumaraswamy is making such statements out of desperation, he added.
He claimed that Kumaraswamy is reiterating that circulating the contents of the pen drive containing obscene videos is more heinous than committing rape when there is no legal scrutiny or provision under IPC. Clarifying that he is not defending the circulation of the contents of the pen drive, he said there is no logic in Kumaraswamy’s argument.