Amid the political row over sex scandal-accused Janata Dal (Secular) MP Prajwal Revanna, the Ministry of External Affairs has said that he travelled to Germany on a diplomatic passport and no political clearance was either sought or given by the ministry.
Mr Revanna, who is the grandson of former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda and nephew of former Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy, was suspended from the Janata Dal (Secular) over videos in which he can allegedly be seen sexually assaulting multiple women. The Hassan MP had left for Germany on Saturday, a day after voting for the Lok Sabha elections had taken place in the constituency.
The videos of the alleged sexual assault had begun circulating online the same day.
To a question on whether Mr Revanna was travelling on a diplomatic passport and whether political clearance was given by the ministry, MEA Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said at the weekly media briefing on Thursday, “No political clearance was either sought from or issued by the MEA in respect of the travel of the said MP to Germany. Obviously, no visa note was issued either. No visa is required for diplomatic passport holders to travel to Germany.”
“The ministry has also not issued any visa note for any other country for the said MP. He travelled on a diplomatic passport,” he added.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had, on Wednesday, written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and asked for the cancellation of the diplomatic passport of Mr Revanna and the initiation of other necessary steps to ensure his swift return.
When he was asked about this and whether Mr Revanna has been located anywhere in Germany Mr Jaiswal said a diplomatic passport can be revoked under the Passport Act, 1967. “Under the provisions of the Act, the passport can be revoked based on the directions of a court. We have not received any such directions so far,” he said.
To another question on whether taking political clearance is mandatory while travelling on a diplomatic passport, the spokesperson only said Members of Parliament are entitled to such passports and that no political clearance was taken.
Earlier on Thursday, Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara said the suspended JDS leader has to appear before the Special Investigation Team investigating the sex scandal and also hinted that he could be arrested if he did not do so.
The political slugfest over the issue has also escalated, with the Congress attacking the JDS and the BJP, inviting sharp retorts from both parties.