Karnataka Home Minister G. Parameshwara on Sunday said the Centre has not officially responded to the state's request seeking cancellation of Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna's diplomatic passport.
Prajwal who is facing charges of raping and sexually harassing women fled to Germany on April 27 after the second phase of elections. Prajwal's uncle and former CM H.D. Kumaraswamy earlier urged the MP to face probe if he's innocent while his grandfather and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda said he has not objection to action taken against his grandson if he is found guilty.
Slamming External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar for saying the Centre received the request from state only on May 21, Minister Parameshwara asked what happened to the Chief Minister's May 1 letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"As far as I know, we have not got any information or letter so far . I have seen that the External Affairs Minister has told the media that they are taking action and in a couple of days they will cancel it , but we have not got any written communication on this," Parameshwara said.
"Where is the (response for) first (CM's) letter? When a Chief Minister writes a letter to the Prime Minister's Office, it has to get its due respect. That did not happen. The External Affairs Minister is saying that they got the letter from the state on May 21, so we have to ask where did the first letter go? They are taking action, it is good, let them take, but him saying that we (state) have sent a letter now and not earlier, is not right," he added.
However, the foreign ministry has already served a show-cause notice to Prajwal, asking him why his diplomatic passport should not be cancelled.
This came days after the Special Investigation Team probing the sex assault case wrote to the Ministry of External Affairs, urging it to cancel Prajwal's diplomatic passport. Earlier, the Special Court of Elected Representatives in Bengaluru issued an arrest warrent against Prajwal.
The SIT had issued look-out circulars and sent a request via CBI to the Interpol, which in turn issued a blue corner notice, seeking Prajwal's whereabouts. Reports have said that the SIT is now preparing a dossier to convert its blue corner notice into a red corner notice once Prajwal Revanna's passport is cancelled.
An Indian citizen with a diplomatic passport is required surrender their regular blue passport. If the Centre cancels Prajwal's diplomatic passport, he will lose his privilege, following which the SIT can request the Interpol to issue of a red corner notice via CBI.
The sexual abuse cases against Prajwal came to light after pen drives allegedly containing explicit videos involving the JD(S) scion were circulated in Hassan ahead of the elections in the constituency on April 26.
