BENGALURU: Prajwal Revanna, grandson of former Prime Minister and JDS supremo HD Deve Gowda, on Tuesday moved the Karnataka High Court with an interlocutory application seeking a stay of its September 1 order declaring his election to Lok Sabha from Hassan constituency as null and void for indulging in corrupt practices, till the filing of the appeal before the Supreme Court.
Giving time to petitioners to file objections, Justice K Natarajan adjourned the hearing to September 8. Giving reasons as to why Prajwal’s election was to be set aside, the HC noted that the petitioners have proved the charges of corrupt practices beyond a reasonable doubt in the election regarding non-disclosure of material facts, including the amount spent for a helicopter for star campaigners, wrong disclosure of the value of the properties and income from the business, evading taxes, proxy voting, exorbitant expenditures than the limit prescribed and wrong acceptance of nomination paper by the returning officer.
The court passed the order while partly allowing the two petitions filed by BJP-defeated candidate A Manju, who is currently JDS MLA from Arakalgud, and advocate G Devaraje Gowda, questioning Prajwal’s election in 2019, on the ground of non-disclosure of assets which amounts to corrupt practice under Section 123 of the Representation of the People Act.
While doing so, the court also rejected the prayer of Manju to declare him as the winning candidate and issued directions to issue notice to Prajwal’s father HD Revanna, who is an MLA and brother Suraj, who is an MLC.