High Court sets aside session Court's stay on Mahua Moitra defamation case against Sudhir Chaudhary
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court Thursday set aside an order staying proceedings in a defamation complaint filed by TMC MP Mahua Moitra against Zee News and its editor-in-chief Sudhir Chaudhary in connection with a show on her June 25 speech in Parliament.
Justice Brijesh Sethi set aside the September 25 decision of the Sessions court which had put on hold the defamation proceedings against the channel going on before a magisterial court.
In her plea, the Trinamool Congress MP had contended that the Sessions court ought not to have intervened in the defamation proceedings when it was at the pre-summoning stage.
The order had come on an application moved by Chaudhary seeking perjury action against the MP for allegedly concealing relevant facts in her defamation complaint.
Moitra in her plea before the high court had said that the Sessions court ought not to have stayed the proceedings against a "proposed" accused on his plea.
In her defamation complaint Moitra had said that her June 25 speech was inspired by a holocaust poster in a United States museum, containing 14 signs of early fascism and that she had "clearly attributed" the source as she stated that the signs were taken from the said poster.
The complaint claimed that the news channel ran a broadcast stating that she had plagiarised her "hate-filled speech" delivered in Parliament.
Subsequently, Zee News filed a defamation complaint against Moitra for allegedly making statements against them to the media. The alleged defamatory statement against the news channel was made while she was speaking to reporters on the allegation against her.
Moitra has been summoned by a magisterial court to appear before it on October 25 in the defamation complaint by the channel.
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Two arrested in K'taka for assaulting minors, uploading CSAM content
Bengaluru (PTI): Two men were arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting two minor girls, recording the acts on mobile phones and uploading the videos online as child sexual abuse material, police said on Thursday.
The accused have been identified as Kiran Kumar (29), hailing from Chitradurga district, and Aditya M K (20), hailing from Shivamogga district, they said.
A probe was initiated after information was received from the NCRP portal regarding a suspected instance of creation of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) for online dissemination, police said.
Accordingly, a case was registered at Kaggalipura Police Station under relevant sections of the IT Act on May 10, they added.
Investigation revealed that two minor girl victims were exploited and videos were created and uploaded to the internet. The child victims have subsequently recorded their statements as per procedure and further necessary legal steps have been taken, Pronab Mohanty Director General of Police, Cyber Command, said in a statement.
Based on the statements of the victims, the accused persons, who allegedly assaulted the minors, recorded the acts on mobile phones and uploaded the videos online, were arrested, he said.
Following the probe, sections 65(2) (rape) and 70 (gangrape) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with relevant sections of the POCSO Act, have been added to the FIR, police said.
Officials collected relevant information and on May 12, arrested the accused persons and seized three mobile phones belonging to them, in which the videos had allegedly been recorded, he said.
The accused were later produced before the court and taken into police custody for further investigation, he added.
According to him, in CSAM cases, police usually apprehend offenders who have downloaded such content or have kept them in their possession after obtaining them from elsewhere, usually the internet.
"The present case is one of the very few instances where content creators and uploaders have been apprehended," Mohanty added.
