BJP was never mum on Prajwal Revanna case, says union minister Pralhad Joshi

Union minister Pralhad Joshi on Sunday said the BJP was never silent on former JD(S) MP Prajwal Revanna, who got life imprisonment in a rape case.

The leader said the BJP has always maintained that whoever commits a crime should be punished.

"There is a law in the country and whoever has done mistake or has committed crime, the court has examined and court has given the verdict. It has to be accepted by everybody," Joshi told reporters.

When he was told that Congress leaders are alleging that the BJP is keeping mum on the issue because of its Alliance with the JD(S), he said, "Where have we kept mum and why we have to keep mum? I have already spoken on it. If somebody does something wrong he has to face action."

"Are there not people in the Congress Party who committed heinous crime like this and they were with the Congress Party previously? They were with the Prime Minister. Yasin Malik was with the then Prime Minister. There are many people. I don't want to name much people," Joshi charged.

The former Hassan MP was on Saturday sentenced to prison term for the remainder of his life, while the court slapped an overall fine of Rs 11.50 lakh on him, directing that Rs 11.25 lakh of it be paid to the victim woman, a domestic help of the accused family.

The court had on Friday convicted the 34-year-old grandson of former Prime Minister and JD(S) patriarch H D Deve Gowda in one of the four sexual abuse and rape cases against him.

The BJP and the JD(S) are alliance partners and its state president H D Kumaraswamy is a union minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi led central government.

Regarding the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi's proposed agitation in Bengaluru on August 5, the minister wondered what the protest was about.

He said whenever Congress wins elections, it never complains but it blames electronic voting machines or the election commission itself for losing polls.