‘Revanna Republic of fear’ — how sexual assault, caste bias & abuse of power defined life in Hassan

The woman and her daughter said they endured this “torture” silently for years. “They (Revanna family) threw us out of our home, got us beaten up by our relatives, abused us and now we are left with nothing,” said the daughter, her words punctuated with sobs.

“If you don’t do as I say, I’ll get your daughter raped, and kill you and your husband,” he told her, as narrated by her daughter to ThePrint over the phone. Prajwal did not stop there. He then allegedly preyed on the daughter, forcing her to strip on video call.

Hassan/Mysuru/Bengaluru: For the woman in her late 40s, it was a day like any other. She was cleaning her employer’s room at his residence in South Bengaluru’s posh Basavanagudi area. The next thing she remembers is her employer Prajwal Revanna entering the room, bolting the door behind him and allegedly forcing himself on her.

At the time, there was no way they could have challenged the authority of the Revanna family. Such was the sense of fear in Hassan, the Janata Dal (Secular) bastion where Revanna family ran its writ over all matters of land, caste and local administration.

The villages of Hassan, hidden behind swathes of coconut trees in the lap of Kalappanahalli hills, are now in full glare of the country. There is little room for doubt that the most prevalent emotion the Revanna family elicits here is not respect or adulation, but ‘fear’. Residents compare the family’s rule here with that of the most infamous dictators in history and mythology — ‘Aurangzeb’, ‘Mussolini’, ‘Saddam Hussein’ and even ‘Duryodhana’.

In the last week of April, circulation of thousands of videos of sexual assault of women, allegedly recorded by JD(S) MP from Hassan Prajwal Revanna, rocked the district.

His father H.D. Revanna stands accused of ordering the abduction of a woman who was allegedly raped by Prajwal. She was the same woman seen pleading in one of the videos. “Beda Anna, bitbidi (please brother, spare me),” she can be heard saying.

A family member of the woman, who was allegedly kidnapped and later fled to safety last week, said the woman was also raped at Prajwal’s residence in Basavanagudi in Bengaluru and the family farm in Hassan.

In the FIR based on a complaint by the woman in her late 40s mentioned earlier, Prajwal currently faces the charge of sexual harassment. Charges of rape could be added on the basis of her supplementary statement.

Speaking to ThePrint, the woman alleged she was also molested by H.D. Revanna, details of which she has shared with the Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed to probe allegations against both JD(S) leaders.

“I have been getting threatening phone calls from the family of Bhavani Revanna to drop the case,” said the woman, adding that the SIT has made arrangements to ensure her safety and that of her family. She added that she dreamt of taking back the house her family built painstakingly and which was allegedly snatched by the Revanna family.

Karnataka State Commission for Women Chief Dr S. Nagalakshmi told ThePrint that “more and more women are establishing contact with the SIT, which is conducting this investigation with utmost confidentiality to protect the identities of the victims”.

Multiple attempts to reach H.D. Revanna, Prajwal Revanna and Bhavani Revanna did not yield any response. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.

Also Read: Prajwal Revanna sex abuse case gives Kumaraswamy upper hand in JD(S) family power struggle

‘India has democracy, Hassan has dictatorship’

All of Hassan now feels like a crime scene.

Residents point to the Member of Parliament quarters while talking in hushed tones about the alleged sexual assault that might have taken place at the government accommodation, which shares a wall with the office of the Superintendent of Police (SP).

“During COVID-19, women were brought to him in government cars,” said an aide, who claims to have worked with Prajwal for over a decade.

Elected to public office for the first time in 2019, residents said Prajwal treated Hassan as his kingdom, of which he believes he is the rightful heir. In meetings he conducted, said a second aide, he would be the only person sitting while everyone else stood around him. “All officials had to stand around him while he talked; no chairs in meetings.”

Prajwal also flirted with hunting, especially under the influence of alcohol. His aides said he would often venture into the jungle to hunt deer.

“On one occasion he accidentally killed a leopard. On another, he fired at a house’s porchlight, mistaking it for deer’s eyes,” said the first aide. “No one complained. He would intimidate cooks in eateries in and around Hassan to cook deer meat for him.”

At least two police officers from Hassan district concurred with the claims of high-handedness with which the Revannas controlled every aspect of local administration.

Former government officials alleged they were intimidated into selling their land and leaving Hassan for good. “They (Revanna family) have grabbed acres and acres of land in Hassan. And got Benami done in the name of other farmers so it couldn’t be traced back to them,” said one retired official, who had to leave Hassan for his safety.

“India has democracy, Hassan has dictatorship,” said a resident of Holenarasipura, a sleepy town by river Hemavathy located half hour from Hassan district headquarters.

Holenarasipura is home to the Revanna family estate, a light yellow-coloured mansion from where all roads leading into the town begin, literally and figuratively.

The first aide told ThePrint, “At their house in Holenarasipura, one woman would be exploited by four different men on different floors of the house.”

In another part of Hassan, in a secluded room with pistachio-coloured walls and a portrait of Mahatma Gandhi, a group of men open up about working as H.D. Revanna’s ‘henchmen’. They lock the door from outside as a group of muscled guards hide behind trees, lest anyone attacks.

“A group of elected JD(S) councillors had gone to meet Prajwal Revanna almost two years ago. He took a liking to one of the women, and called her inside, alone. All the councillors got visibly scared by the situation and wanted to leave. The woman taken inside didn’t want to emerge again. She was embarrassed and crying,” said a former aide who worked for the H.D. Deve Gowda family for over four decades.

Prajwal, they tell ThePrint, had a ‘modus operandi’, a pattern of sorts which was somewhat visible in the police complaint filed by a JD(S) worker who told the SIT that he repeatedly raped her and even threatened to destroy her husband’s political career.

According to many in Hassan, this dominance of the Revanna family coincided with the political rise of H.D. Revanna, who by some accounts, allegedly preyed on vulnerable women employed at the family’s farms, party workers, and even government officials.

A former Zila Panchayat official alleged H.D. Revanna exploited women workers of the Zila Panchayat, Karnataka Milk Federation, and Hassan Cooperative Milk Producers’ Society Union, of which Revanna was elected president seven times — most recently this March.

“Revanna would send files for signatures to a senior officer, who would assign them to a woman of Revanna’s choice. She would be directed to take the files to a secluded guest house inside KMF,” he said. “People’s jobs were at stake. Saying no was not an option.”

The former Zila Panchayat official also alleged that H.D. Revanna would often “visit” the wives of those who were awarded government contracts. “This was a question of hundreds of crores of rupees, nobody could say no.”

The probe into allegations against Prajwal and H.D. Revanna has, for all these reasons and more, opened a Pandora’s box. It has shown that underneath Hassan’s quaint serenity lie innumerable stories of sexual abuse, land grabbing, corruption and caste discrimination.

Also Read: Memes, videos mock ‘mass sexual assault’ in Karnataka’s Hassan; police urged to act amid Revanna probe

‘Caste bias’ perpetuated by Revannas

Padmamma, an elderly woman from Sigaranahalli, a hamlet about two hours from Holenarasipura, sits on the steps of her house and points to a blue canopy of a temple. “I built that,” she said and offered a feeble smile. “But I cannot go there.”

In 2015, Padmamma, and another woman, Tayamma, were assaulted for offering prayers at the village temple built by local Dalits, since the forward caste Vokkaliggas did not want to allow them entry into the temple. The incident had snowballed into a national issue.

How did the Revanna family figure into this picture? H.D. Deve Gowda’s family belongs to the dominant Vokkaliga community, which comprises agrarian or land-owning castes. They are believed to make up around 14 percent of Karnataka’s population.

Raju, a leader from the village, said when the Dalits had first decided to lodge a complaint, they found H.D. Revanna at the police station discouraging them from doing so. “He said that he’ll get another temple built for the untouchables and asked us to not enter the devasthana that was built here. We rejected this offer,” Raju told ThePrint.

For three to four days, police refused to lodge an FIR, until protests erupted. “While protesting at the police station I could hear H.D. Revanna on the phone directing the Deputy Superintendent of Police to not lodge an FIR,” added Raju.

For two days after the FIR was lodged, Revanna himself protested the move along with Vokkaligas at Sigaranahalli. Raju claimed that Revanna declared in front of the forward castes of the village that he would beat the Dalits if they entered the temple.

Both communities eventually stopped going to the village temple altogether to maintain the peace. Since then, only a priest enters the temple to offer daily prayers.

The role of the Revanna family in the Sigaranahalli dispute is not the only example residents cite when levelling allegations of casteism against them. With the veil of silence slowly lifting, many who have lived these experiences are now coming forward.

Vijay Kumar, district president of Madiga Dhandhora, a Dalit rights organisation, said he faced this caste discrimination first-hand. “In 2012, I went to invite Revanna to an event organised by my organisation in the morning. He was praying to a deity in front of his house and turned back to try to hit me and asked me why I was there so early in the morning. He did all of this in front of police and government officials,” he recalled.

The Gowda family aide quoted earlier remembers an incident when a Dalit leader and JD(S) member of the Gram Panchayat, Annappa, had come to congratulate H.D. Revanna on winning the assembly elections. According to the aide, as Annappa bent down to touch his feet, Revanna “kicked him on his chest and asked him how dare he touch him”.

There are also accounts of Revannas making Dalits work on their farms for a paltry sum of Rs 5,000 a month, without even bereavement leaves. Very few, like Raju, have had the courage to protest this behaviour. But resistance came at a cost. “I have been attacked by the Revanna family for years now. At any given point in time, at least four people are always following me. They tried to set my house and car on fire,” he alleges.

Father-son fiefdom

The allegations against H.D. Revanna and Prajwal have sent a chill down the spine of residents, who for decades lived under a blanket of silence that prevented them from talking about the Revanna family. Their silence has now turned into disquiet, with more people coming forward with stories of what life was like in the ‘Revanna Republic of fear’.

A common theme in all these stories is that any one who stood up to the Revanna family had to pay a price.

Kamala of Kodihalli village, where most families are in the business of selling dried coconut powder, said her father Gidde Gowda and his friend were assaulted by JD(S) workers 33 years ago. The family filed a case, and refused to withdraw it even at the Revanna family’s behest. Kamala said the Revanna family has held a grudge against them since.

As a child, things were better when her father was on good terms with the JD(S). Kamala even admits to casting bogus votes in favour of the party. “I was made to wear a saree even though I was a minor and made to cast a vote 14 times for the Revanna family,” she told ThePrint. But this goodwill did not last very long.

“Whenever I approach the Panchayat, revenue department or the police for any work, I’m directed to get permission from the Revanna family, which never grants it. This is how my work has been blocked for years,” she complained.

In Kyamanahalli, a small secluded hamlet with poor cellular network, Kamala’s brother Umesh said the assault on their father left him with a limp for the rest of his life. Gidde Gowda, claimed Umesh, was targeted because Congress leader and Deve Gowda’s political rival Puttaswamy Gowda had visited their house in 1992.

“My father was a JD(S) supporter and mom a two-time JD(S)-backed GP member but immediately after Puttaswamy’s visit, stones were pelted at our house, and later my father and his friend were targeted. They were in the hospital for almost a year,” he said.

“He (H.D. Revanna) cut coconut trees of people he didn’t like. We consider coconut trees sacred, as they give us food and livelihood,” said Koti Gowda, the 45-year-old brother of Kamala and Umesh.

Sitting alongside him is Shivlinge Gowda, a bony 62-year-old with a genuine smile who does not carry even the shadow of his rowdy past.

Shivalinge Gowda and Umesh’s family are now on good terms. “I was in the village when JD(S) workers at the behest of Revanna came and asked us to assault Gidde. I accompanied the men who went to carry out the assault. I was later imprisoned and a fine of Rs 10,000 was levied on me, which Revanna didn’t even pay,” Shivlinge Gowda told ThePrint.

With the storm of allegations threatening to loosen the Revanna family’s chokehold on the people of Hassan, their power is slipping away with violent flickers. Kannada media, in particular Power TV News, a Bengaluru headquartered news channel, has been scathing in its reportage of the case. Editors at Power TV say they have received phone calls from Prajwal, requesting them to go easy on him.

Rakesh Shetty, managing director of Power TV News, always has at least four gunmen by his side. His phone is plagued by threatening calls, one after another.

As for the people of Hassan, they are no longer scared to talk about this battle of “good vs evil”, which they say begun the day the SIT took H.D. Revanna into custody. “When Revanna went to jail (folds his hands) kai mugidhi dhani, it was as if all my prayers had been answered,” says Umesh’s brother Koti Gowda.

People of Hassan now speak of Karma. But complainants have a long road ahead of them. Fear of the Revanna family still lurks in the minds of the people. “If they return unscathed from this, they’ll burn the whole district down,” said a former government official.

Meanwhile, the woman in her late 40s and her daughter remain in an undisclosed location in Bengaluru, sharing space with other women who have faced the same plight. An unsaid bond binds them — the hope that they don’t have to pay the price for telling their truth.

(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)

Also Read: Prajwal Revanna case shows why and how sexual crimes by men in politics can go unchecked for years