US Senate approves resolution probing Putin for war crimes
Washington(AP): The US Senate unanimously approved a resolution seeking investigations of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his regime for war crimes over the invasion of Ukraine.
The bipartisan measure from Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., says the Senate strongly condemns the "violence, war crimes. crimes against humanity being carried out Russian military forces under Putin's direction. It encourages international criminal courts to investigate Putin, his security council and military leaders for possible war crimes.
"These atrocities deserve to be investigated for war crimes," said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
The measure was approved swiftly and without dissent late Tuesday as lawmakers in Congress continue to muscle a bipartisan show of force against the Russian war in Ukraine.
First introduced almost two weeks ago, the Senate resolution would not carry the force of law, but is another example of Congress providing the Biden administration political support to take a tough line against Putin's aggression.
Last week, US Vice President Kamala Harris embraced calls for an international war crimes investigation of Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, citing the atrocities of bombing civilians, including a maternity hospital.
The resolution approved by the Senate has been embraced by senators from both parties, Republicans and Democrats.
It says the Senate condemns Putin, the Russian Federation, the Russian Security Council, members of the Russian military and others of committing flagrant acts of aggression and other atrocities that rise to the level of war crimes.
The resolution calls for the US and others to seek investigations of Putin and his regime at the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice for potential war crimes.
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Gurugram Police arrest BJP Yuva Morcha member for spreading fake murder story on social media
New Delhi: Gurugram Police have arrested BJP Yuva Morcha member Hariom Mishra, for allegedly spreading a fabricated and communally sensitive story on social media about the murder of a college student in Gurugram.
Mishra who is also known as Shaurya Mishra had shared a collage of four photographs on his X handle earlier this month. He claimed that a 24-year-old college student, identified as Nikita Agarwal, had been murdered by her classmate Arif Khan in Gurugram. In the post, he alleged that the woman was blackmailed, forced into prostitution, gangraped, and eventually killed. He also claimed that Arif dumped her body in a forest. The claims were presented as being based on police sources.
The post went viral and garnering over 1.5 lakh views, and was amplified by several right-wing social media handles across X, Facebook and Instagram. A verification of the claims revealed that no such incident had taken place in Gurugram. A search of credible news reports showed no record of any such murder. The police said this news would have inevitably attracted media attention if it were true.
On December 11, Gurugram Police publicly refuted the claims through their official X handle. They stated that the information which was being circulated was completely false. The police warned that legal action would be taken against those spreading misinformation. Despite the warning, Mishra neither deleted the post nor issued any clarification.
Police in Gurugram confirmed Mishra's arrest on December 16. The police said a FIR was filed after he continued to spread false information about the alleged murder of a Hindu woman by Muslim man. Police said Mishra, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Kaushambi district, is now being investigated.
Gurugram Police spokesperson Sandeep Singh told The Print that the accused had deliberately misrepresented facts and used objectionable content to spread hatred along religious lines. “Such posts can create serious disturbances in society, and the police take these matters very seriously,” he said.
A reverse image search conducted by fact-checkers at Alt News, revealed that the photographs used in the viral post were unrelated to the claims, while two of the images were traced to a Pinterest account belonging to influencer Maulik Chopra and another image was sourced from an Instagram post by influencer Shivam Thakur featuring a woman named Deepanshi Rawat. The fourth image was found on an unrelated Instagram page. The images depicted different individuals and had no connection to any crime.
Police said they are also investigating Mishra’s motive behind sharing the false and provocative content.
