Rahul Gandhi to appear in Bengaluru Court tomorrow in defamation case filed by Karnataka BJP
Bengaluru, Jun 6: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will appear before a special court here on Friday in connection with a defamation case filed by the Karnataka BJP for issuing allegedly defamatory advertisements in mainstream newspapers.
The advertisement ahead of the assembly polls last year had accused the then BJP government in the state of indulging in large-scale corruption during its 2019-2023 rule.
"Congress national leader Rahul Gandhi will attend the City Civil Court at 10.30 am tomorrow (Friday)," the state Congress said on Thursday.
Later, he will hold a discussion with the Congress's newly-elected MPs from the state as well as the defeated candidates at Bharat Jodo Bhavan on Queens Road at 11.30 am, the party's state unit said, adding that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister and KPCC President D K Shivakumar will also be present.
The court had on June 1 granted bail to Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar after they appeared before it in connection with the case.
Judge K N Shivakumar had passed the order while setting June 7 as the date for Rahul Gandhi’s personal appearance.
During the hearing last week, the counsel for Gandhi moved an application seeking exemption from appearance for his client, which was opposed by the complainant's side, arguing that repeated exemptions should not be permitted.
The BJP had in its complaint filed in June 2023 alleged that false and reckless allegations were made in the advertisements issued by the accused persons on May 5, 2023 in all the mainstream newspapers in Karnataka during campaigning for assembly polls, under the title "Corruption rate card" and making accusations of "40 per cent Commission Sarkara (government)".
It was alleged in the complaint that the advertisements were issued by the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (state Congress) through Shivakumar, in his capacity as its president and by Siddaramaiah, as the then Leader of the Opposition in the legislative assembly.
Rahul Gandhi had put up a post of this "defamatory advertisement" on his account on social media platform X, the BJP pointed out.
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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.
