Bihar bypolls: RJD retains Mokama, BJP keeps Gopalganj
Patna (PTI): The ruling 'Mahagathbandhan' and the Opposition NDA in Bihar remained evenly poised on Sunday as the RJD and the BJP retained their respective sitting Assembly seats of Mokama and Gopalganj.
The bypolls were the first test of strength since the upheaval in August this year that brought the Mahagathbandhan, helmed by the RJD, to power and ousted the BJP.
The RJD saw its victory margin fall in Mokama. It also fell short of a win in party president Lalu Prasad's home district of Gopalganj, which the BJP retained, albeit by the skin of its teeth. The BJP candidate Kusum Devi polled 70,032 votes, while RJD's Mohan Gupta got 68,243 votes.
BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal, however, quickly came out with a statement hailing the result in Gopalganj as "popular rejection" of the ruling coalition, which now also includes Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD(U).
Regarding the result in Mokama, Jaiswal said, "We contested for the first time in three decades but our candidate performed better than all previous runners up."
The bypolls were necessitated by disqualification of Mokama MLA Anant Kumar Singh (RJD) and the death of Gopalganj legislator Subhash Singh (BJP). Both seats have been clinched for their respective parties by wives of the previous winners.
Anant Kumar Singh's wife Neelam Devi won Mokama by a comfortable margin of more than 16,000 votes. The spirited fight put up in the seat by the BJP, which fielded a greenhorn Sonam Devi, was backed by both warring factions of late Ram Vilas Paswan's family.
Paswan's brother Pashupati Kumar Paras is already in the NDA and his party's acting president Surajbhan Singh, a former Mokama MLA himself, made possible efforts to corner Anant Singh's wife in the by-elections. Paswan's son, who had grown ambivalent following BJP's alleged indifference towards him, too, campaigned intensively for the saffron party.
In Gopalganj, the RJD lost by less than 2,000 votes.
Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM and Mayawati's BSP together polled votes ten times the victory margin.
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.
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.
