The Supreme Court on July 10 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 pointed out to the Karnataka government and Special Investigation Team, represented by senior advocate Kapil Sibal, that the High Court had granted her protection from arrest on the grounds that she was a 55-year-old woman and cannot be punished for her son’s alleged crimes.
“See the reasons given by the High Court. The accused is a woman, 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 these kinds of allegations, what will be the role of the mother in abetting the crime committed by her son?” Justice Kant asked.
Mr. Sibal said the High Court’s decision to grant her the relief of anticipatory bail was “most unfortunate”. The kidnapping would not have possibly happened without her knowledge and participation.
“The victim was in captivity under the directions of the family,” Mr. Sibal submitted. The Bench however pointed out that the name of the mother did not feature either in the complaint or in the witness statement given to the Magistrate under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
“We are only considering the question of liberty of a woman,” the Bench said. Mr. Sibal replied it would be hard to believe that the mother would have been unaware of what was happening.
“In the normal course of human conduct, the mother would be aware,” he reasoned. The court agreed to issue notice to Bhavani Revanna on the appeal filed by the State.
