Be Ye Never So High, Law Is Above You

A mechanical engineer by qualification, the 34-year-old grandson of former prime minister HD Deve Gowda and a former MP, Prajwal Revanna is now a convicted rapist and lodged in Bengaluru Central Prison as prisoner number 15528.

- BALA CHAUHAN

On August 2, the MLA/MP court in Bengaluru sentenced Prajwal to life imprisonment and fined ₹11 lakh for raping a 47-year-old domestic worker in Mysuru and recording the assault. Of the four rape and sexual abuse cases against him, this was the first case (rape) that led to trial and conviction. The fine will be paid as compensation to the survivor—a daily wage worker, who had the spine of steel and had withstood shame, agony, social ostracisation and fear of the backlash from the political elite.

Pronouncing the maximum sentence of life imprisonment following his conviction in rape, Sessions Judge Santosh Gajanana Bhat, in his 466-page judgement, held that as an MP, Prajwal wielded his political and social dominance to violate a woman employed in his household, coercing her into silence through fear, shame, and manipulation.

“What are the safeguards against an arbitrary exercise of power?” The question posed in the judgement echoed through generational trauma of sexual exploitation of disempowered women by the rich and entitled.