The Bengaluru City Police have launched a probe to identify the people who had put up posters accusing Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar of exploiting explicit video clips of the victims of sex abuse allegedly by Prajwal Revanna, Hassan JD(S) MP, for political gain. Some of these posters used unparliamentary language against the Deputy Chief Minister, while others also had the photos of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
These posters appeared near the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) office on Queens Road, near Lulu Mall, both associated with Mr. Shivakumar. This came hours after Holenarsipura-based advocate Devaraje Gowda, who had claimed he had a copy of all the videos, reportedly in a letter to BJP state president B.Y. Vijayendra in December 2023, alleged Mr. Shivakumar to be behind the videos being leaked.
City Police Commissioner B. Dayananda said that the city police had taken cognizance of the posters and had asked the jurisdictional police to probe it further. Officials from Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and Election Commission of India (ECI) are also part of the probe, sources said. Police officials are trying to identify those who put up these posters on Monday late night (May 6), by analysing the CCTV footage of cameras in the vicinity.
Meanwhile, JD(S) workers staged a protest outside the KPCC office, Queens Road, demanding action against Mr. Shivakumar. Protestors burnt a tyre, and held a dharna raising slogans demanding action against the KPCC president. They were detained by the police and later released.
