Hubballi railway station blast: Cops probe Kolhapur explosion link
Kolhapur, Oct 22: A day after a blast occurred at Hubballi railway station in Karnataka, police in Kolhapur in Maharashtra are investigating how the name of local Shiv Sena MLA appeared on a corrugated sheet stuck to the exploded bucket.
Police are also probing if the Hubballi incident had any common link with the Mumbai-Bengaluru Highway blast in Kolhapur last week in which one person was killed.
A senior police officer here said a cardboard was found stuck on the bucket with the name "Prakash Abitkar" written on it.
Abitkar is the sitting MLA of Shiv Sena from Radhanagari in the western Maharashtra district. He is seeking re-election to the state assembly, elections for which were held on Monday.
"Prima facie, some low-grade explosive was kept inside the bucket that was left unattended at the Hubballi railway station," he said.
When asked whether "Prakash Abitkar" mentioned on the cardboard was the same MLA, he replied in affirmative.
The cardboard on the bucket read: "Prakash Abitkar, Gargoti taluka, Bhudargarh."
"We are probing the matter in two directions. We will investigate how Abitkar's name came to be written on the cardboard on the bucket. We will also probe if the Hubballi incident has had any links with the Ujalaiwadi incident in Kolhapur," said district SP Abhinav Deshmukh.
He was referring to the October 18 explosion on Mumbai-Bengaluru Highway near Kolhapur in which a 45-year-old truck driver was killed.
Police are investigating whether the blast occurred after the driver picked up an object containing the explosive.
Police didn't rule out the possibility that the explosive was kept by the road to kill pigs or other animals.
Meanwhile, a team of Kolhapur Police was sent to Hubballi for further investigation, the SP added.
Karnataka Police had said the minor blast on the railway station occurred when a man picked up an unclaimed parcel. One person was injured in the incident.
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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.
