The Evening Wrap: CBI holds searches in 20 States in child sexual abuse case

The Central Bureau of Investigation on Saturday conducted searches at 56 locations across 19 States and one Union Territory, as part of a pan-India drive against the circulation and sharing of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM). The operation code-named “MeghaChakra” is being carried out following the inputs received from the Interpol’s Singapore special unit based on the information received from the authorities in New Zealand. Searches are being carried out in Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Goa, Karnataka, Telangana and Tamil Nadu among others. Earlier in November 2021, the agency had launched a similar exercise code-named “Operation Carbon”, in which suspects in 13 States and one Union Territory were raided. Subsequently, the CBI registered about two dozen cases involving more than 80 people. The previous operation was conducted at 76 locations across the country. The persons named in the First Information Reports were booked under the relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Information Technology Act, for allegedly being part of the syndicates that uploaded, circulated, sold and viewed CSAM through various social media platforms and groups. Based on its findings, the CBI had later decided to send requests to several countries for gathering information under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties (MLATs) on those involved in the racket. More than 100 references were to be made. Apart from the accused Indian nationals, the other suspects were from countries like Pakistan (36), Canada (35), the United States (35), Bangladesh (31), Sri Lanka (30), Nigeria (28), Azerbaijan (27), Yemen (24), Malaysia (22), Saudi Arabia (19), Indonesia, (19), Egypt (21), United Arab Emirates (19), United Kingdom (17), South Africa (15), Nepal (15), Algeria (17), Iraq (14), Afghanistan (12), Kenya (12), and Oman (12). The probe led to the identification of over 50 groups with more than 5,000 offenders, including the nationals of about 100 countries, also including Turkey, Poland, Sudan, South Korea, Uganda, Kuwait, Italy, Germany, Spain, Australia and Romania. Shashi Tharoor gets nomination forms collected for Congress president poll Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor got the nomination forms for the AICC presidential poll collected from the party headquarters in New Delhi, all but confirming an electoral face-off for the top party post with Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. Tharoor’s close aide Aalim Javeri collected the forms from the office of the party’s central election authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry at the AICC headquarters in New Delhi on the first day of the start of the nomination process. After over two decades, the Congress is set to see a contest for the post of party chief with Rajasthan Chief Minister Gehlot, who has announced his candidature, expected to take on Tharoor. Previously, Tharoor had met Sonia Gandhi on Monday and expressed his intention to contest the poll, while the Congress president conveyed that she would stay “neutral” in the elections, according to sources. Sonia Gandhi welcomed the idea of more people contesting the poll and dispelled the notion that there would be an “official candidate”. Ankita Bhandari murder case | Uttarakhand CM Dhami orders SIT probe; BJP expels accused’s father, brother The body of Ankita Bhandari, who was allegedly murdered by the son of Uttarakhand’s senior BJP leader Vinod Arya and his aides, was recovered from Chilla canal on Saturday with Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami assuring speedy justice to the victim’s family. The BJP’s State unit also removed the father of the accused from the party and his elder brother from the post of nominated vice-chairman of the State’s OBC Commission. “The body of Uttarakhand’s daughter Ankita was recovered this morning. My heart is deeply pained by this heart-breaking incident. In order to get the harshest punishment to the culprits, a SIT has been formed under the leadership of Deputy Inspector General of Police P. Renuka Devi,” said CM Dhami. He had also ordered the demolition of the resort owned by the main accused Pulkit Arya, son of Vinod Arya, who was the Minister of State under the previous BJP government headed by Trivendra Singh Rawat. “Pulkit’s elder brother, Ankit Arya, a nominated vice-chairman of the OBC Commission was also removed from his post and the party along with the father”, said Dhami. Ashok Kumar, Director General of Police, Uttarakhand, informed that a missing case of Ankita Bhandari, 19, who hailed from Pauri Garhwal district, was lodged with the Revenue Police on September 19. BJP leader Vinod Arya’s son Pulkit — who owns the resort in Pauri’s Yamkeshwar block — was arrested Friday along with two employees of the facility for allegedly killing the receptionist, who had been missing for the past few days “We have transferred the case from the Revenue Police on September 22 to State police and started investigation. On Thursday, the police arrested two people, Pulkit Arya, the owner of Vanantara Resort, where Ankita used to work,” he said, adding that Arya had been forcing Ankita to do some ‘immoral activities’ in the resort to please the clients. Arya was arrested along with his resort manager Saurabh Bhaskar and assistant manager Ankit Gupta. “They confessed to have killed Ankita and thrown her body into Cheela canal as she refused to get indulged into prostitution,” police said. Meanwhile, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot expressed grief over Bhandari’s murder, and demanded a speedy investigation by the State government and justice to the family. He described the incident as “highly condemnable and sad”, tweeting “There is a lot of anger among the people about the form in which the BJP leader’s son put pressure on the girl and then she was brutally murdered.” He said the BJP government in Uttarakhand should conduct a speedy investigation into the incident impartially. The accused should not be spared and the victim’s family should get justice, he added. India is on track to attract $100 billion FDI this fiscal, says government India is on track to attract $100 billion foreign direct investment in the current fiscal on account of economic reforms and ease of doing business, the government said. In 2021-22, the country received the “highest ever” foreign inflows of $83.6 billion. “This FDI has come from 101 countries, and invested across 31 Union Territories and States and 57 sectors in the country. On the back of economic reforms and Ease of Doing Business in recent years, India is on track to attract $100 billion FDI in the current FY (financial year),” the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said. It said that to attract foreign investments, the government has put in place a liberal and transparent policy wherein most sectors are open to FDI under the automatic route. The reform measures include liberalisation of guidelines and regulations, in order to reduce unnecessary compliance burden, bring down cost and enhance the ease of doing business in India, it added. FDI equity inflows in India dipped by 6% to $16.6 billion during April-June period of the current fiscal. It also said that to address the import of low-quality and hazardous toys and to enhance domestic manufacturing of toys, several strategic interventions have been taken by the government. The import of toys in 2021-22 have reduced by 70% to $110 million (₹877.8 crore). On the other hand, exports rose by 61% to $326 million. Russians strike Ukraine as Kremlin-staged votes continue Russian forces launched new strikes on Ukrainian cities as the Kremlin-orchestrated voting continued in occupied regions of Ukraine to pave the way for their annexation by Moscow. Zaporizhzhia Governor Oleksandr Starukh said the Russians targeted infrastructure facilities in the Dnieper River city, and one of the missiles hit an apartment building, killing one person and injuring seven others. The Russian forces also struck other areas in Ukraine, damaging residential buildings and civilian infrastructure. The British Defense Ministry said that Russia was targeting the Pechenihy dam on the Siverskyy Donets River in northeastern Ukraine following previous strikes on a dam on a reservoir near Kryvyi Rih, causing flooding on the Inhulets River. “Ukrainian forces are advancing further downstream along both rivers,” the ministry said. “As Russian commanders become increasingly concerned about their operational setbacks, they are probably attempting to strike the sluice gates of dams, in order to flood Ukrainian military crossing points.” Amid the fighting, voting continued in Kremlin-organised referendums in occupied areas, votes that Ukraine and its Western allies dismissed as a sham with no legal force. In the five-day voting in the eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions and Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south that began Friday, election officials accompanied by police officers carried ballots to homes and set up mobile polling stations, citing safety reasons. The votes are set to wrap up Tuesday when balloting will be held at polling stations. The voting was also held in Russia, where refugees and other residents of those regions cast ballots. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Moscow will heed the residents' will, a clear indication that the Kremlin is poised to quickly annex the regions once the voting is over. Ukraine and the West said the vote was an illegitimate attempt by Moscow to slice away a large part of the country, stretching from the Russian border to the Crimean Peninsula. A similar referendum took place in Crimea in 2014 before Moscow annexed it, a move that most of the world considered illegal. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Ukrainians in occupied regions to undermine the referendums and to share information about the people conducting “this farce.” He also urged Ukrainians to avoid being called up in the Russian mobilisation announced Wednesday. “But if you do end up in the Russian army, then sabotage any enemy activity, interfere with any Russian operations, give us all important information about the occupiers... And at the first opportunity, switch to our positions,” he said in his nightly address. Russia’s Defence Ministry said that a partial mobilisation ordered by Mr. Putin aimed to add about 3,00,000 troops, but the presidential decree keeps the door open for a broader call-up. In Brief: “Pakistan Zindabad’‘ slogan was allegedly raised during a protest by the Popular Front of India in Pune, a video that has surfaced on social media showed, drawing sharp reactions from the Maharashtra government, which warned of action against the slogan shouters. CM Eknath Shinde said such slogans will not be tolerated and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, who is also the Home Minister, said those who indulged in this sloganeering will not be spared. The video showed that the slogan was raised a couple of times when the PFI activists were bundled into a police vehicle as part of their detention during the protest on Friday. The Pune police said they were investigating the matter. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [logo] The Evening Wrap 24 SEPTEMBER 2022 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [[Arrow]Open in browser]( [[Mail icon]More newsletters]( Anti-child sexual abuse drive | CBI conducts searches in 20 States The Central Bureau of Investigation on Saturday conducted searches at 56 locations across 19 States and one Union Territory, as [part of a pan-India drive against the circulation and sharing of Child Sexual Abuse Material]( (CSAM). The operation code-named “MeghaChakra” is being carried out following the inputs received from the Interpol’s Singapore special unit based on the information received from the authorities in New Zealand. Searches are being carried out in Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Goa, Karnataka, Telangana and Tamil Nadu among others. Earlier in November 2021, the agency had launched a similar exercise code-named “Operation Carbon”, in which suspects in 13 States and one Union Territory were raided. Subsequently, the CBI registered about two dozen cases involving more than 80 people. The previous operation was conducted at 76 locations across the country. The persons named in the First Information Reports were booked under the relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Information Technology Act, for allegedly being part of the syndicates that uploaded, circulated, sold and viewed CSAM through various social media platforms and groups. Based on its findings, the CBI had later decided to send requests to several countries for gathering information under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties (MLATs) on those involved in the racket. More than 100 references were to be made. Apart from the accused Indian nationals, the other suspects were from countries like Pakistan (36), Canada (35), the United States (35), Bangladesh (31), Sri Lanka (30), Nigeria (28), Azerbaijan (27), Yemen (24), Malaysia (22), Saudi Arabia (19), Indonesia, (19), Egypt (21), United Arab Emirates (19), United Kingdom (17), South Africa (15), Nepal (15), Algeria (17), Iraq (14), Afghanistan (12), Kenya (12), and Oman (12). The probe led to the identification of over 50 groups with more than 5,000 offenders, including the nationals of about 100 countries, also including Turkey, Poland, Sudan, South Korea, Uganda, Kuwait, Italy, Germany, Spain, Australia and Romania. Shashi Tharoor gets nomination forms collected for Congress president poll [Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor got the nomination forms]( for the AICC presidential poll collected from the party headquarters in New Delhi, all but confirming an electoral face-off for the top party post with Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. Tharoor’s close aide Aalim Javeri collected the forms from the office of the party’s central election authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry at the AICC headquarters in New Delhi on the first day of the start of the nomination process. [Congress leader Shashi Tharoor. File.] After over two decades, the Congress is set to see a contest for the post of party chief with Rajasthan Chief Minister Gehlot, who has announced his candidature, expected to take on Tharoor. Previously, Tharoor had met Sonia Gandhi on Monday and expressed his intention to contest the poll, while the Congress president conveyed that she would stay “neutral” in the elections, according to sources. Sonia Gandhi welcomed the idea of more people contesting the poll and dispelled the notion that there would be an “official candidate”. Ankita Bhandari murder case | Uttarakhand CM Dhami orders SIT probe; BJP expels accused’s father, brother The body of Ankita Bhandari, who was allegedly murdered by the son of Uttarakhand’s senior BJP leader Vinod Arya and his aides, was recovered from Chilla canal on Saturday [with Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami assuring speedy justice]( to the victim’s family. The BJP’s State unit also removed the father of the accused from the party and his elder brother from the post of nominated vice-chairman of the State’s OBC Commission. “The body of Uttarakhand’s daughter Ankita was recovered this morning. My heart is deeply pained by this heart-breaking incident. In order to get the harshest punishment to the culprits, a SIT has been formed under the leadership of Deputy Inspector General of Police P. Renuka Devi,” said CM Dhami. He had also ordered the demolition of the resort owned by the main accused Pulkit Arya, son of Vinod Arya, who was the Minister of State under the previous BJP government headed by Trivendra Singh Rawat. “Pulkit’s elder brother, Ankit Arya, a nominated vice-chairman of the OBC Commission was also removed from his post and the party along with the father”, said Dhami. Ashok Kumar, Director General of Police, Uttarakhand, informed that a missing case of Ankita Bhandari, 19, who hailed from Pauri Garhwal district, was lodged with the Revenue Police on September 19. BJP leader Vinod Arya’s son Pulkit — who owns the resort in Pauri’s Yamkeshwar block — was arrested Friday along with two employees of the facility for allegedly killing the receptionist, who had been missing for the past few days “We have transferred the case from the Revenue Police on September 22 to State police and started investigation. On Thursday, the police arrested two people, Pulkit Arya, the owner of Vanantara Resort, where Ankita used to work,” he said, adding that Arya had been forcing Ankita to do some ‘immoral activities’ in the resort to please the clients. Arya was arrested along with his resort manager Saurabh Bhaskar and assistant manager Ankit Gupta. “They confessed to have killed Ankita and thrown her body into Cheela canal as she refused to get indulged into prostitution,” police said. Meanwhile, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot expressed grief over Bhandari’s murder, and demanded a speedy investigation by the State government and justice to the family. He described the incident as “highly condemnable and sad”, tweeting “There is a lot of anger among the people about the form in which the BJP leader’s son put pressure on the girl and then she was brutally murdered.” He said the BJP government in Uttarakhand should conduct a speedy investigation into the incident impartially. The accused should not be spared and the victim’s family should get justice, he added. India is on track to attract $100 billion FDI this fiscal, says government [India is on track to attract $100 billion foreign direct investment]( in the current fiscal on account of economic reforms and ease of doing business, the government said. In 2021-22, the country received the “highest ever” foreign inflows of $83.6 billion. “This FDI has come from 101 countries, and invested across 31 Union Territories and States and 57 sectors in the country. On the back of economic reforms and Ease of Doing Business in recent years, India is on track to attract $100 billion FDI in the current FY (financial year),” the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said. It said that to attract foreign investments, the government has put in place a liberal and transparent policy wherein most sectors are open to FDI under the automatic route. The reform measures include liberalisation of guidelines and regulations, in order to reduce unnecessary compliance burden, bring down cost and enhance the ease of doing business in India, it added. FDI equity inflows in India dipped by 6% to $16.6 billion during April-June period of the current fiscal. It also said that to address the import of low-quality and hazardous toys and to enhance domestic manufacturing of toys, several strategic interventions have been taken by the government. The import of toys in 2021-22 have reduced by 70% to $110 million (₹877.8 crore). On the other hand, exports rose by 61% to $326 million. Russians strike Ukraine as Kremlin-staged votes continue Russian forces [launched new strikes on Ukrainian cities]( as the Kremlin-orchestrated voting continued in occupied regions of Ukraine to pave the way for their annexation by Moscow. Zaporizhzhia Governor Oleksandr Starukh said the Russians targeted infrastructure facilities in the Dnieper River city, and one of the missiles hit an apartment building, killing one person and injuring seven others. [A general view of a damaged building following missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia on September 24, 2022. ] The Russian forces also struck other areas in Ukraine, damaging residential buildings and civilian infrastructure. The British Defense Ministry said that Russia was targeting the Pechenihy dam on the Siverskyy Donets River in northeastern Ukraine following previous strikes on a dam on a reservoir near Kryvyi Rih, causing flooding on the Inhulets River. “Ukrainian forces are advancing further downstream along both rivers,” the ministry said. “As Russian commanders become increasingly concerned about their operational setbacks, they are probably attempting to strike the sluice gates of dams, in order to flood Ukrainian military crossing points.” Amid the fighting, voting continued in Kremlin-organised referendums in occupied areas, votes that Ukraine and its Western allies dismissed as a sham with no legal force. In the five-day voting in the eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions and Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south that began Friday, election officials accompanied by police officers carried ballots to homes and set up mobile polling stations, citing safety reasons. The votes are set to wrap up Tuesday when balloting will be held at polling stations. The voting was also held in Russia, where refugees and other residents of those regions cast ballots. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Moscow will heed the residents' will, a clear indication that the Kremlin is poised to quickly annex the regions once the voting is over. Ukraine and the West said the vote was an illegitimate attempt by Moscow to slice away a large part of the country, stretching from the Russian border to the Crimean Peninsula. A similar referendum took place in Crimea in 2014 before Moscow annexed it, a move that most of the world considered illegal. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Ukrainians in occupied regions to undermine the referendums and to share information about the people conducting “this farce.” He also urged Ukrainians to avoid being called up in the Russian mobilisation announced Wednesday. “But if you do end up in the Russian army, then sabotage any enemy activity, interfere with any Russian operations, give us all important information about the occupiers... And at the first opportunity, switch to our positions,” he said in his nightly address. Russia’s Defence Ministry said that a partial mobilisation ordered by Mr. Putin aimed to add about 3,00,000 troops, but the presidential decree keeps the door open for a broader call-up. In Brief: [“Pakistan Zindabad’‘ slogan]( was allegedly raised during a protest by the Popular Front of India in Pune, a video that has surfaced on social media showed, drawing sharp reactions from the Maharashtra government, which warned of action against the slogan shouters. CM Eknath Shinde said such slogans will not be tolerated and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, who is also the Home Minister, said those who indulged in this sloganeering will not be spared. The video showed that the slogan was raised a couple of times when the PFI activists were bundled into a police vehicle as part of their detention during the protest on Friday. The Pune police said they were investigating the matter. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. 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