New Delhi. The Ministry of External Affairs is taking action on the Karnataka government’s request to cancel the diplomatic passport of suspended Janata Dal (Secular) MP Prajwal Revanna. Prajwal has been accused of sexually harassing several women and it is believed that he is currently in Germany.
Official sources said that the Ministry of External Affairs has received a letter from the Karnataka government requesting to cancel Revanna’s diplomatic passport. Prajwal Revanna is the grandson of former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda and went abroad on the 27th of last month. Just a day before this, voting for the Lok Sabha elections was held in his constituency.
Sources said, “The Ministry of External Affairs has received a letter from the Karnataka government to cancel the diplomatic passport of MP Prajwal Revanna. Action is being taken on it.” It is believed that the Ministry of External Affairs has started the process of cancelling Prajwal’s diplomatic passport under the Passport Act-1967 and other related rules.
A person aware of the entire matter said that if the passport is cancelled, Prajwal’s stay abroad will be illegal and legal action can be taken against him by the authorities of the country where he has stayed. Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah wrote a second letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, requesting him to ‘take initiative and do the needful’ to cancel Prajwal’s diplomatic passport. The Chief Minister had also sent a similar letter to the Prime Minister on May 1.
A Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been constituted by the Karnataka government to investigate the allegations of sexual exploitation against Prajwal. The SIT had written to the Ministry of External Affairs to cancel his diplomatic passport after a local court issued an arrest warrant against him.
On the request of the SIT, Interpol has already issued a ‘Blue Corner Notice’ seeking information about Revanna’s whereabouts.
Many cases of sexual exploitation of women are registered against Prajwal. These cases came to light after several allegedly obscene videos related to them became public. Earlier this month, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal had said that Revanna traveled to Germany on a diplomatic passport and did not seek political clearance for the trip.
He had told, “No political approval was neither sought nor issued from the Ministry of External Affairs regarding the visit of the said MP to Germany.” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson said, “Apparently, no visa note was even issued.” Diplomatic passport holders do not require a visa to travel to Germany. “The ministry has not issued visa notes for any other country.” Language Dheeraj Suresh