BBMP wades into row by dropping Mercy Angels from Kempegowda Award list
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Bengaluru: Honouring Dr Taha Mateen of 'Mercy Angels' with Kempegowda Award in recognition of the efforts to ensure dignified last rites for persons who died from Covid-19, the BBMP has blundered by removing him from the list of awardees.
Mercy Angels volunteers were instrumental in providing dignified burials for bodies of Covid-19 victims whose families did not come forward to conduct last rites.The BBMP presented 33 persons with the award and Dr Taha Mateen was among them. The list of awardees released to the media in the morning had Dr Mateen's name. But by evening, the name had disappeared.A row erupted after BBMP opposition leader Abdul Wajid took up the issue. "The mayor dropped Dr Mateen's name at the behest of the RSS," he said.
Mayor M Goutham Kumar, however, said there was a different reason. "The list of awardees I signed didn't have the name of Mercy Angels' Taha Mateen. As the Kempegowda Award can't be given to non-governmental organisations, the name was dropped," he said.
Deputy Chief Minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayan, who spoke after the award ceremony, said as per the practice, the BBMP has honoured achievers from various spheres. "This year, it was decided to honour people who involved themselves in different streams to fight COVID," he said.
Responding to the allegation that people with links to RSS were getting awards, he said, "There is no rule against awarding those in RSS. Whoever contributes to social welfare and those who achieve should be honoured. We have done that," he said.Meanwhile, the mayor said he would look into the claim that Nandidurga Balu Gowda was given the Award for the second time. "I didn't know about this. I will look into it," he said.
The list of achievers included Dr Aseema Banu, who had set up the dedicated Covid ward, Dr Meena Ganesh, Dr Naveen Benakappa and Dr Venkatesh Murthy for championing the cause of home isolation, Tasleem Arif Syed from the biotechnology field, Nitin Kamath and several others. The celebration, scheduled to be held last week, was deferred following the death of former President Pranab Mukherjee.
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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.
