New Delhi: Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Saturday hit out at Union Minister Piyush Goyal for his remarks on Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee, saying the government's job is to improve the "collapsing" economy and not to run a "comedy circus".

Goyal on Friday said Banerjee supported 'NYAY', a minimum income scheme proposed by the Congress, which was rejected by the Indian voters and there was no need to "accept what he thinks".

The 'NYAY' scheme was one of the highlights of the Congress manifesto for the April-May Lok Sabha polls. The Union commerce and industry minister, at a media briefing in Pune, also described Banerjee as a "Left-leaning" person.

Lashing out at Goyal for his remarks, Priyanka Gandhi said instead of doing their work, BJP leaders are trying to belie the achievements of others.

The Nobel laureate did his work honestly and won the Nobel Prize, she said in a tweet in Hindi. "The economy is collapsing. Your job is to improve it, not to run a comedy circus," the Congress general secretary said. She also tagged a media report which claimed that the slowdown in the auto sector continued in September.

Banerjee, an Indian-American who has been critical of the Narendra Modi government's economic policies, won the 2019 Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences.

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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.