New Delhi, Aug 29: India on Tuesday lodged a strong protest with China over its so called "standard map" laying claim over Arunachal Pradesh and the Aksai Chin, and asserted that such steps only complicate the resolution of the boundary question.

The External Affairs Ministry also rejected these claims as having "no basis".

"Just making absurd claims does not make other people's territories yours," External Affairs Minister Jaishankar told NDTV while reacting to the Chinese move.

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said,"We have today lodged a strong protest through diplomatic channels with the Chinese side on the so called 2023 'standard map' of China that lays claim to India's territory."

"We reject these claims as they have no basis. Such steps by the Chinese side only complicate the resolution of the boundary question," he added.

India's strong reaction came a day after China officially released the 2023 edition of its "standard map" that claimed Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin as belonging to that country. The "map" also showed the entire South China Sea as part of China as it featured in the previous editions of the 'map'.

In early April also, Beijing announced Chinese names for 11 more places in Arunachal Pradesh which the neighbouring country claims as the southern part of Tibet, drawing a sharp reaction from New Delhi, which outrightly rejected Chinese renaming and asserted that the state is an integral part of India and that assigning "invented" names does not alter this reality.

It was the third batch of standardised geographical names for Arunachal Pradesh issued by China's civil affairs ministry.

The first batch of the standardised names of six places in Arunachal Pradesh was released in 2017 while the second batch of 15 places was issued in 2021.

The ties between India and China came under severe strain following the eastern Ladakh border row that began in May 2020.

The Indian and Chinese troops are locked in an over three-year confrontation in certain friction points in eastern Ladakh even as the two sides completed disengagement from several areas following extensive diplomatic and military talks.

India has been consistently maintaining that peace and tranquillity along the LAC were key for the normalisation of overall ties.

Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.



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.