CEC virtually rules out LS polls with 11 Assemblies
New Delhi, Aug 14 : The BJP's push for "One Nation, One Poll" fuelled a major debate on Tuesday with the Election Commission appearing to rule out simultaneous polls to the Lok Sabha and 11 assemblies in the near future and the BJP dismissing such a possibility while the Congress said the BJP was planning to delay the elections fearing defeat.
A day after BJP President Amit Shah pushed for simultaneous polls with the Law Commission, Chief Election Commissioner O.P. Rawat said: "On the issue of ‘one nation, one poll', the Commission had given inputs and suggestions in 2015 itself. Logistics arrangements with reference to 100 per cent availability of voter verified paper audit trail (VVPATs) will be a constraint."
He also said if the term of some state assembly needed to be curtailed or extended, then a constitutional amendment would be required. Other requirements of additional police force and polling personnel was also needed.
However, he said, the Commission would continue to deliver its responsibility of conducting polls whenever the term of a state assembly ends.
On Tuesday, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra ruled out any plans of the BJP to hold simultaneous polls and denied that Shah had mooted any proposal to hold elections in 11 states along with Lok Sabha elections of 2019.
"From this table, the BJP rejects any such misconception. Any such misplaced conceptions should not find a place anywhere," he told the media after news reports claimed that the party was planning to hold simultaneous balloting to the Lok Sabha and 11 assemblies by delaying polls in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh where they are due this year end.
"Nowhere has our national President said in this letter that elections to 11 state assemblies be held along with the next Lok Sabha elections. Please read it carefully," Patra said.
"The letter speaks about ‘one nation, one poll' as an idea which should be discussed and debated. Many institutions like the Election Commission and Niti Aayog have expressed positive opinions on this matter and said that consensus should be built on the issue."
However, the Congress smelled a rat in the BJP's pitch for simultaneous polls and warned that it would move the court if the government tried to defer elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
"Simultaneous elections are not possible without an amendment in the Constitution. There is only one way to have the elections together and that is Modiji should dissolve the Lok Sabha to advance general elections. We will welcome it," Congress leader Ashok Gehlot said.
Congress Rajya Sabha member Vivek Tankha said his party suspected that the government was trying to defer elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh where the surveys were projecting that the ruling BJP was losing.
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.
Indian national sentenced to 35 years in prison for sexual exploitation of minors, child pornography
New York (PTI): A 31-year-old Indian national has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for sexually exploiting several children through a social media app where he often posed as a teenage boy to gain their trust and threatened and extorted them with child pornography when they refused his requests.
Sai Kumar Kurremula, 31, an Indian national living in Edmond, Oklahoma on an immigrant visa, has been sentenced to serve 420 months in federal prison for the sexual exploitation of three children and transportation of child pornography, US Attorney Robert Troester said in a statement.
At the sentencing hearing last week, US District Judge Charles Goodwin sentenced Kurremula to serve 420 months in federal prison, followed by a lifetime term of supervised release.
In announcing his sentence, Goodwin noted that these offences are among those that society considers the most serious because they involve such vulnerable victims. Goodwin further highlighted that Kurremula inflicted trauma on his victims that will echo throughout their lives and their families’ lives, and his lengthy sentence of imprisonment reflects that trauma.
In April last year, Kurremula was charged with sexual exploitation of children and transportation of child pornography. According to an affidavit filed in support of a criminal complaint, in October 2023, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) began investigating an account on a social media messaging app involving a user who was sexually exploiting minor girls.
The Internet Protocol address used to create the account led federal authorities to Kurremula. Public documents and evidence at the sentencing hearing allege Kurremula had sexually exploited at least 19 minors through the social media messaging app, often posing as a 13-15-year-old boy to gain the trust of his victims. When the victims refused his requests, Kurremula would manipulate, threaten, and extort his victims to produce even more child pornography.
Kurremula had pleaded guilty and admitted to sexually exploiting three minor victims and knowingly transporting images of child pornography. Specifically, Kurremula admitted that to ensure the minor victims complied, he threatened one minor that he would drive to her house and show her parents sexually explicit images of her; threatened another victim that he would come to her home and shoot her family; and threatened a third young individual that he would publicly post sexually explicit images and videos of her.
“The appalling exploitation, manipulation, and coercion of multiple children by this defendant justly warranted the 35-year sentence imposed by the Court,” Troester said. “This case serves as a clear warning to others that the strongest of penalties await those who exploit and victimize our children.” FBI Oklahoma City Special Agent in Charge Doug Goodwater said Kurremula manipulated children into sending him explicit images for his perverse gratification. “These disgusting actions robbed the victims of their innocence and caused unthinkable harm,” Goodwater said.
