Locals who have seen the widely circulated footage say it does not appear that Congress leader forced himself on the victim

'Sex appears consensual'

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'Sex appears consensual'

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Locals who have seen the widely circulated footage say it does not appear that Congress leader forced himself on the victim

Yesterday, Taluk Youth Congress President Pratap Singh (32) from Dandeli joined the long list of leaders political and religious who made headlines after being accused of rape.

A few weeks after the sex scandal involving Food and Civil Supplies Minister Hartalu Halappa broke out, the Karwar police arrested Singh on charges of raping a friend's wife. Halappa has been charged with raping his friend's wife.

"Singh was tracked down by a police team near Belgaum where he was hiding. He was brought to Karwar and remanded to judicial custody," said Superintendent of Police Raman Gupta.

Singh, a friend of the victim, whose husband is reportedly employed in the Middle East, promised to help him supervise the construction of his house, as there were no male members in the family who could help.

During one of the many trips to his friend's house, Singh allegedly drugged the victim and raped her. He recorded the entire act and shared the footage with his friends and allegedly asked them to burn in on a CD.

The footage was leaked and soon the entire town had access to the footage.

Though the rape occurred a few months ago, it was after the elders in the victim's family saw the footage that they asked the victim to lodge a complaint.

"We received the complaint on Monday and began looking for Singh," Gupta said, adding that the police are investigating the case to ascertain the facts.

Though the victim has maintained that she was drugged and exploited sexually, locals who saw the video footage said that the sex appeared consensual.

"She has ruined her life. Her marriage is in danger as the incident has been conveyed to her husband abroad," said a person who lives in the victim's neighbourhood.

Infamous Sex scandals in Karnataka

2007
Renukacharya had hit the headlines when Jayalakshmi, a nurse who was believed to have been his lover, had made public some intimate pictures of them together. She had accused him of discarding her after sexually exploiting her.

2010
Swami Nithyananda and Tamil actress Ranjitha made news in the national media last week after a video featuring two people getting intimate, believed to be the actress and the swami, was aired on several news
channels.

Karnataka Food and Civil Supplies Minister Hartalu Halappa had invited himself to a friend's house for dinner after which he complained of chest pain and sent his friend out to get medicines. When the friend returned he allegedly found a half-naked Halappa with his wife, who accused Halappa of rape and Halappa had to resign.