The special investigation team (SIT) on Saturday took JDS MLA H.D. Revanna into custody from the house of his father and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda for allegedly abducting his former domestic help.

The SIT officials, who reached Gowda's house at 5.17pm on Saturday, had to wait until 6.50pm when Revanna opened the door and walked out with the officers, who then took him in their car.

Revanna was detained in the case registered in K.R. Nagar, Mysuru, some 140km from here, in which a man had accused him of abducting his mother who had once worked as a domestic help at the MLA's house in Hassan. The woman, who had worked at the house for nearly five years, had quit about three years ago. She is allegedly one of the sexual assault victims of Revanna's son Prajwal Revanna.

According to the help's son, a close aide of Revanna called Satish Babanna had picked her up on April 26 but brought her back home the same day. She was allegedly abducted on April 29. Babanna was arrested on Friday. The police traced the domestic help to a farmhouse allegedly owned by a friend of senior Revanna in Kalenahally village in Hunsur taluk of Mysuru.

The SIT team, probing the sexual abuse allegations against Revanna and Prajwal, arrived at Gowda's house in Padmanabhanagar in the city just minutes after a special court rejected senior Revanna’s anticipatory bail plea in a second FIR registered on May 2, in which he was accused of kidnapping a woman who had worked as his domestic help. The SIT had objected to the anticipatory bail plea citing non-bailable offences under IPC sections.

The sex scandal involving the father-son comes ahead of the second leg of the general elections in Karnataka on May 13.