Maharashtra: Eight low-intensity quakes hit Palghar within four hours
Palghar: Eight low-intensity earthquakes in the range of 2.2 to 3.6 magnitude were recorded in Palghar district of Maharashtra within four hours early on Friday, officials said.
The tremors were felt in Dahanu and Talasari tehsils of the district and no loss of life was reported so far, they said.
"An earthquake of 3.5 magnitude was recorded at 3.29 am, which was followed by 3.5 and 3.6 magnitude quakes at 3.57 am and 7.6 am respectively," chief of the District Disaster Control Cell Vivekanand Kadam said.
Dahanu Sub Divisional Officer Ashima Mittal said, "Besides these three earthquakes, which were above 3.0 magnitude, five others were experienced between 3 am and 7 am.
Their magnitude was in the range of 2.2 to 2.8."
Kadam said the local tehsildars have been instructed to carry out inspection of the villages.
These two tehsils have been experiencing low-intensity earthquakes over the last few days. During the intervening night of Friday and Saturday last week, four such quakes had been recorded. One of them was of 4.0 magnitude, officials said.
Mittal said that in view of the series of tremors experience of late, big tents have been set up on open grounds in the villages of these two tehsils so that local residents can move in there if they feel unsafe in their houses.
Following the last week's tremors, walls of some houses in Dahanu and Talasari had collapsed, while several other houses had developed cracks.
According to Mittal, disaster coordination committees have been formed at the village level and the civil defence staff has been asked to remain prepared for assistance.
"Mock drills will be carried out in the villages to make people aware of the dos and don'ts," she said.
Meanwhile, the district authorities released an audio message, asking the villagers in Dahanu region to remain alert as they reside in "earthquake prone" area.
Palghar's Dahanu area has been experiencing such tremors since November 2018, with most of them centered around Dundalwadi village.
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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.
