Thiruvananthapuram (PTI): A popular social media artist has been arrested for allegedly raping a college student about a month ago in a lodge at Thampanoor area in Kerala's state capital.

The SHO of Thampanoor police station told PTI that the accused was arrested on Saturday and a magisterial court remanded him to 14 days judicial custody on the same day.

Inspector of Police Prakash R said that the accused had asked the woman -- a college student whom he met on another famous social networking site and with whom he was in a relationship for a few weeks -- to come along to buy a car and on the way he took a room in a lodge to refresh himself.

At the lodge, he allegedly raped the woman and then they went to buy the car, the officer said.

The woman, disturbed by what had happened, asked his friends about him and they told her that he has been in numerous illegal relationships with women and was not a trustworthy person, the police said.

Subsequently, she lodged a complaint with police, the officer said and added that the mobile phone belonging to the accused allegedly revealed numerous compromising videos of women. Police were investigating the matter further to ascertain whether he used the visuals to blackmail or extort his victims for money or any other favours.

Giving details of his modus operandi, the officer said that the accused, who has lakhs of followers on a popular short-video hosting platform, allegedly got close to his victims including married women, on the pretext of giving tips on how to be popular on social media.

Thereafter, he would allegedly record their private or intimate moments on his phone, the officer said, adding that his mobile phone has been sent to the Cyber Cell for retrieving any content that he may have deleted.

Besides that, he would also allegedly obtain his victims' email ids and passwords through emotional blackmails and if they ever failed to respond to his calls, he would spread false stories about them through their emails, the officer said.

Apart from the instant case, the accused is also facing charges of causing hurt and theft in two other police stations in the state capital, the officer said.

The officer also said that the accused looks different in real life when compared to his online videos.

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Mumbai, Aug 13 (PTI): The RBI will introduce a new mechanism from October 4 for clearance of cheques within hours of being presented to banks, reducing the current time period of up to two working days.

Cheques will be scanned, presented, and passed in a few hours and on a continuous basis during business hours. The clearing cycle will be reduced from the present T+1 days to a few hours.

Cheque Truncation System (CTS) currently processes cheques with a clearing cycle of up to two working days.

To improve the efficiency of cheque clearing and reduce settlement risk for participants, and to enhance customer experience, the RBI has decided to transition CTS from the current approach of batch processing to continuous clearing with 'on-realisation-settlement'.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued a circular for introduction of Continuous Clearing and Settlement on Realisation in CTS.

"It has been decided to transition CTS to continuous clearing and settlement on realisation in two phases. Phase 1 shall be implemented on October 4, 2025 and Phase 2 on January 3, 2026," it said.

There will be a single presentation session from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM.

Cheques received by the branches shall be scanned and sent to the clearing house by the banks immediately and continuously during the presentation session, RBI said.

"For every cheque presented, the drawee bank shall generate either positive confirmation (for honoured cheques) or negative confirmation (for dishonoured cheques)," it said.

During Phase 1 (from October 4, 2025 to January 2, 2026), drawee banks will be required to confirm (positively/negatively) cheques presented on them, latest by the end of the confirmation session (7:00 PM), else those will be deemed to have been approved and included for settlement.

In Phase 2 (from January 3, 2026), the item expiry time of cheques shall be changed to T+3 clear hours.

Giving an example, the RBI said the cheques received by drawee banks between 10:00 AM and 11:00 AM will have to be confirmed positively or negatively by them by 2:00 PM (3 hours from 11:00 AM).

Cheques for which confirmation is not provided by the drawee bank in the prescribed 3 hours shall be treated as deemed approved and included for settlement at 2:00 PM.

RBI further said that on completion of settlement, the clearing house will release the information of positive and negative confirmations to the presenting bank.

"The presenting bank shall process the same and release the payment to the customers immediately, but not later than 1 hour from successful settlement, subject to usual safeguards," it said.

RBI directed banks to make their customers adequately aware of the changes in the cheque clearing process.

Banks have also been asked to be in readiness to participate in continuous clearing in CTS on the prescribed dates.