The Congress on Monday furnished a letter to allege the BJP had known for months about the sex scandal that engulfed Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna on Sunday, but still fielded the Janata Dal Secular politician as NDA candidate this time.

Prajwal and his father H.D. Revanna — son and grandson of former Prime Minister and JDS leader H.D. Deve Gowda — were on Sunday named in an FIR after their former cook alleged sexual abuse at the hands of both men.

A pen drive with 2,976 sexually explicit video clips — allegedly involving and filmed by Prajwal, with some of them purportedly featuring forced sex — too have emerged and are being investigated by police.

Reports said Prajwal had fled to Germany, amid indications that his party might suspend him.

The Congress said a BJP leader had written to state unit president Vijayendra Yediyurappa on December 8 last year, citing the existence of the pen drive and asking that Prajwal be not re-nominated from Hassan. The letter did not mention the former cook’s sex abuse charges.

G. Devaraje Gowda, who wrote the purported letter, had lost from the Holenarasipura Assembly seat to Revanna in last year’s state elections, when the JDS was not a BJP ally. Congress media chief Pawan Khera on Monday released a copy of the letter.

Karnataka IT minister Priyank Kharge claimed that Devaraje had held a news conference in January begging his party not to field Prajwal as NDA candidate. He did not clarify whether Devaraje had mentioned the video clips there.

“In Feb/March these issues were also briefed to Home Minister @AmitShah,” Priyank wrote on X.

“Despite, being aware of all these issues, you gave him a ticket and also campaigned for him, Modi ji,” he added, targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“The entire State BJP leadership knew this all along and chose to remain silent.”

In his first reaction, Revanna described the entire development as a “conspiracy”.

“We know this is a conspiracy but we are not people who would run scared from all this,” he told reporters in Bengaluru on Monday after meeting his father. He refused to go into the allegations, saying: “The SIT is investigating this. So I will not say anything that could hamper the investigation.”

Former chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, younger brother of Revanna, distanced himself and his father from the controversy.

“This is not about our family. When you say ‘Revanna’s family’, it consists of him, his wife and his children. So there is no question of this being an issue in Deve Gowda’s family. We already live separately and come together only for political activities,” Kumaraswamy told reporters in Shivamogga.

“Let neither me nor my father be dragged into this,” he added.

Kumaraswamy said he had requested his father to suspend Prajwal.

Revanna too told reporters: “They are circulating something (videos) that is four to five years old.”