Trump wins Alaska, his electoral college tally goes up to 217
Washington: US President Donald Trump on Wednesday won the election in the state of Alaska, taking his electoral college tally to 217 after winning three electoral votes. The Republican Party has also retained the Senate seat, giving the party 50 seats in the 100-member United States Senate.
When the election was called in Alaska, Trump had received 56.9 per cent of the total votes counted and President-elect Joe Biden from the Democratic Party with 39.1 per cent.
With this, Trump's tally of electoral college votes has increased to 217, as per the count maintained by The New York Times.
Biden has already been declared winner with 279 of the 538 electoral college votes. Trump has refused to concede and has filed lawsuits in multiple states, challenging election results.
The election results in Alaska also gave the Republican Party an edge over the Democrats in the Senate. Republican senator Dan Sullivan won his Senate re-election bid. This gives the Republicans 50 Senate seats, while the Democrats have 48. The two Senate seats are going in for elections on January 5.
President Trump and Senate Republicans win Alaska, overwhelmingly and by a massive 20 point spread! Ivanka Trump, daughter of Trump and a presidential advisor, said in a tweet.
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Delhi court sentences Haryana gangster Vikas Gulia, associate to life imprisonment
New Delhi (PTI): A Delhi court has sentenced Haryana gangster Vikas Gulia and his associate to life imprisonment under MCOCA provisions, but refused the death penalty saying the offences did not fall under the category of 'rarest of the rare cases'.
Additional Sessions Judge Vandana Jain sentenced Gulia and Dhirpal alias Kana to rigorous imprisonment for life under Section 3 (punishment for organised crime) of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
In an order dated December 13, the judge said, "Death sentence can only be awarded in 'rarest of the rare cases' wherein the murder is committed in an extremely inhumane, barbarous, grotesque or dastardly manner as to arouse umbrage of the community at large."
The judge said that on weighing the aggravating and mitigating circumstances, it could be concluded that the present case did not fall under the category, and so, the death penalty could not be imposed upon the convicts.
"Thus, both the convicts are sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs 3 lakh each, for committing the offence under Section 3 of MCOCA," she said.
The public prosecutor, seeking the death penalty for both the accused, submitted that they were involved in several unlawful activities while they were on bail in other cases.
He argued that the accused had shown no respect for the law and acted without any fear of legal consequences, and therefore did not deserve any leniency from the court.
The court noted that both convicts were involved in offences of murder, attempt to murder, extortion, robbery, house trespass, and criminal intimidation. Besides, they had misused the liberty of interim bail granted to them by absconding.
It said, "The terror of the convicts was such that it created fear psychosis in the mind of the general public, and they lost complete faith in the law enforcement agencies and chose to accede to the illegal demands of convicts. Despite suffering losses, they could not gather the courage to depose against them."
The court noted that Gulia was involved in at least 18 criminal cases, while Dhirpal had links to 10 serious offences.
It underlined that MCOCA had been enacted "keeping in view the fact that organised crime had come up as a serious threat to society, as it knew no territorial boundaries and is fuelled by illegal wealth generated by committing the offence of extortion, contract killings, kidnapping for ransom, collection of protection money, murder, etc."
Both accused persons had been convicted on December 10 in a case registered at Najafgarh police station. The police filed a chargesheet under Section 3 (punishment for organised crime) and 4 (punishment for possessing unaccountable wealth on behalf of member of organised crime syndicate) of MCOCA.
