Government Investigation into Telegram

The Indian government is currently investigating Telegram, a popular messaging app, over concerns about its involvement in illegal activities such as extortion and gambling. This investigation is being led by the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C), which operates under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). Depending on the results of the investigation, there could be a possibility of banning Telegram in India.

Recent Developments

The investigation into Telegram coincides with the recent arrest of Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of Telegram. Durov was detained in Paris on August 24 by French authorities. Reports suggest that his arrest was related to concerns over Telegram’s moderation policies, which have been criticized for failing to prevent criminal activities on the platform. An anonymous government source shared these details with Moneycontrol, highlighting the increasing scrutiny Telegram is facing.

Telegram’s Role in Criminal Activities

Telegram has become a focal point for Indian authorities due to its alleged involvement in various criminal activities. The app, which has over 5 million users in India, has been linked to significant scams and financial losses. One notable incident involved a leak of a medical entrance exam question paper on Telegram, which was sold for between Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000. This leak led to student protests and intervention by the Supreme Court. The ongoing investigation by I4C and MeitY is focusing on how Telegram might be used for illegal activities such as extortion and gambling.

Challenges with Regulation

One challenge in regulating Telegram is its lack of a local office in India. Indian Information Technology (IT) Rules require platforms to have key compliance officers and to submit monthly reports. Without a physical presence in India, Telegram has been difficult for authorities to manage, complicating efforts to obtain user data and oversee the platform’s operations. This absence of a local office has made enforcing regulations and addressing issues more challenging.

Reactions to Pavel Durov’s Arrest

Pavel Durov’s arrest has intensified the scrutiny of Telegram. He was detained at Bourget airport near Paris for issues related to the app’s moderation. In response, Telegram stated on August 26 that Durov frequently travels across Europe and has nothing to hide. The company emphasized that nearly a billion users worldwide rely on Telegram and expressed hope for a quick resolution. The arrest has sparked reactions from various figures in the tech community. Edward Snowden criticized it as an attack on free speech, while entrepreneur Balaji Srinivasan suggested the French government might be motivated by control rather than crime prevention. Elon Musk questioned why other tech leaders, like Mark Zuckerberg, haven’t faced similar scrutiny.

Previous Scrutiny and Potential Impact

Telegram has faced previous scrutiny in India. In October, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology issued directives for Telegram and other platforms to remove child sexual abuse material (CSAM). In May, several encrypted messaging services, including Briar, Element, and Wickr Me, were blocked due to misuse concerns. Additionally, the IT ministry considered blocking Proton Mail after it was used for hoax bomb threats, but Swiss authorities intervened to prevent the ban. As the investigation continues, the outcome could have significant implications for Telegram’s operations in India and may lead to a broader discussion about regulating encrypted communication services in the country.

_{source: firstpost.com}

A jewellery shop owner duped a US national by selling her fake jewellery worth ₹300 for a whopping ₹6 crore in Jaipur. The local police initiated an inquiry in the case after the intervention of the US embassy, according to a Business Standard report.

A US resident bought the jewellery from a shop in Johri Bazaar in Jaipur, Rajashthan a few months ago. The jewellery shop owner Rajendra Soni and his son Gaurav also provided her with a certificate of authenticity which turned out to be fake.

The US resident discovered that her expensive jewellery was counterfeit when she showcased the ornament at an exhibition in the US, where she found out about the fraud in India.

Cherish attempted to contact the jewellery owners and also tried to file a complaint. But no actions were taken on her complaint until the intervention of the US Embassy.

She visited the jewellery shop to confront the shop owner. However, her allegations were dismissed. Then she tried to file a complaint against the jewellery shop owner, however the accused filed a false case against the US national.

The Jaipur police began investigation after the US Embassy’s intervention. According to the Business Standard report, the accused persons are absconding and the person who issued the fake certificate of authenticity to the victim had been arrested. After duping the foreigner, the accused jewellery shop owners purchased a recently bought flat worth ₹3 crore in the C scheme area of Jaipur, reported BS citing police officials.

_{source: livemint.com}

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee has declined to seriously target Omar after helping unseat Reps. Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman.

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) won her Democratic primary for reelection Tuesday and avoided the fate of two colleagues in the House’s liberal “Squad” who lost earlier this year after pro-Israel groups heavily targeted them.

Those groups — mainly the American Israel Public Affairs Committee — mostly stayed out of Omar’s race as she faced three primary challengers led by Don Samuels, a former Minneapolis City Council member who nearly unseated her in 2022.

Omar had 56 percent of the vote when the Associated Press projected her victory Tuesday night. Samuels had 43 percent.

Samuels came within 2,500 votes of defeating Omar when he first ran against her two years ago. She took him more seriously this time, vastly outraising him and preparing for a potential onslaught from the same political forces that unseated Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) last week and Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) in June.

AIPAC has not said why its super PAC, the United Democracy Project, did not target Omar after going after Bush and Bowman in the two most expensive House primaries of the year. Samuels said it was a missed opportunity for national groups.

The group has appeared to pick its battles this year, also declining to target another Squad member, Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.), in her April primary.

The race was one of the most high-profile contests among primaries across four states on Tuesday: Connecticut, Minnesota, Vermont and Wisconsin. In Wisconsin, voters made official a closely watched Senate matchup between Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D) and GOP businessman Eric Hovde.

In Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District, Omar has been an outspoken critic of Israel, especially its handling of the war in Gaza after Hamas attacked Israel last year. Like Bush and Bowman, Omar was among the first House Democrats to call for a cease-fire in the war.

She centered her campaign on other issues, such as abortion rights and local funding she secured for the district. One ad called her a “progressive leader delivering for Minnesota.”

Samuels attacked Omar as divisive and self-serving. He also called out her occasional breaks with her own party, including her 2021 vote against President Joe Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure law.

Omar and five other House Democrats, including Bush and Bowman, opposed the infrastructure bill because it was not paired with a broader social spending package.

The AIPAC-linked super PAC swamped Bush and Bowman with ads about their opposition to the bill. Omar sought to address the potential political vulnerability with an early July commercial that featured Biden praising her during a visit to Minnesota last year.

Omar’s fundraising advantage came into focus during the final weeks of the primary. Over the first 24 days of July, she outspent Samuels $1.4 million to $222,000.

Omar campaigned with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) toward the end as liberals looked for a decisive win after their recent electoral setbacks. Sanders said at a Minneapolis rally that he wanted to ensure Omar “wins and, in fact, wins big.”

While the 5th District is not competitive in the general election, Republicans paid some attention to Omar’s primary. A Republican candidate for Senate, Royce White, recently suggested that Republican voters in 5th District should participate in the Democratic primary to defeat her, saying he would “gladly give up 5,000 votes in the CD5 primary to accomplish this goal.”

It was not immediately clear what impact possible crossover voters had on the outcome.

^{src: washingtonpost.com}

A convicted child rapist volleyball star shamelessly wept as he spoke about being booed at the Olympics amid a huge storm about his participation.

Steven Van de Velde, 30, who served just one year of a four-year sentence for raping a 12-year-old British girl, was speaking for the first time since his controversial participation in the Paris’ Games.

The Dutch athlete was found guilty of three counts of raping the child in Milton Keynes in 2014 but was selected because he was granted early release from prison and judged by national selectors to have paid his dues.

He told the newspaper: ‘I definitely thought about it, yes. I did something wrong, ten years ago. I have to accept that.

‘But hurting people around me – whether it’s Matthew [his volleyball partner], my wife, my child… that just goes too far for me.

‘That’s definitely a moment where I thought, is this worth it?’

Van de Velde was sentenced to four years in prison in 2016 after pleading guilty to raping a 12-year year-old British girl in August 2014 when he was 19.

The Dutchman had travelled from Amsterdam to the UK and raped the girl at a house in Milton Keynes.

Despite being told by a judge that his conviction was ‘career ending’, van de Velde resumed his volleyball career after serving just 12 months of his four year sentence.

Van de Velde has successfully rebuilt his life since leaving prison to the extent that he is now married to a high profile fellow volleyball pro Kim Behrens from Germany. The pair married in 2022 and have a young son together.

Behrens, a police officer as well as an athlete, dotes on her 6′ 6′ tall husband and regularly posts loved-up content on social media about their lives together.

Although victims advocates, lawmakers and fans have called for van de Velde to be banned from the Olympics, the IOC has said it was powerless to stop the Netherlands from sending an athlete who qualified in the usual way.

However, he was not staying with other athletes in Olympic village after the British Olympic Association aired concerns over the matter with the IOC.

Dutch Olympic selectors supported Van de Velde’s inclusion in their team and previously explained he had met all the criteria needed to appear at the Games in France’s capital.

‘Since 2018, Steven van de Velde has been participating in international beach volleyball tournaments again following an intensive, professionally supervised trajectory,’ a spokesperson told Mail Sport.

‘Meanwhile, Steven van de Velde has met all qualification criteria for the Olympic Games and is therefore included in the group of athletes who formally passed over on July 4 from the Dutch national federations to NOC, who then becomes responsible for them during the Olympic Games.’

Dutch officials also provided van de Velde with special treatment whilst he competed in Paris, preventing him from speaking to reporters – something typically required of all Olympians – and whisking him away from games surrounded by three body guards.

DOC press attaché John Van Vliert said: ‘Two of the measures we took was we have Steven sleeping outside the [Athletes] village, the second one was we don’t gonna do [media] questions in the mix zones.

‘We are protecting a convicted child rapist [so that he can] do his sport as best as possible for the tournament which he qualified for.’

A Paris 2024 official added: ‘Van de Velde was taken away with three body guards. Normally everyone comes through the mixed zone.

‘But he didn’t come through to avoid any media violence.

‘We aren’t happy with that, but the decision was made at the top of the IOC [International Olympic Committee].’

Van de Velde’s partner Immers, 23, also defended his team-mate during the tournament, saying: ‘He’s had his punishment. And now he’s really kind.’

The Dutch pair qualified for the tournament at the Eiffel Tower Stadium ranked 11th in the world and qualified from their group despite losing their opening game to Italy.

Speaking after their first match at the Paris Games on July 28, Immers was asked if van de Velde had ever expressed any remorse to him for rape, to which he replied: ‘No, he doesn’t, he doesn’t explain it.’

The duo then defeated Chile and Norway to set up a round of 16 tie against Brazil, which they lost in straight sets.

The controversy around van de Velde’s selection generated a lot of discussion during the games. 

A petition calling on Olympic chiefs to kick van de Velde out the Games gained more than 94,400 signatures, and the British Olympic Association expressed its anger about his competing. 

In a statement, the Netherlands Olympic Committee said it was ‘implementing concrete measures to ensure a safe sporting environment for all participants.’ 

‘These measures include, at the request of van De Velde, alternative accommodation for van De Velde and no media contact during his stay in Paris,’ a spokesman said.

He claimed that the measures were in line with ‘standard practice’ and had been developed following a ‘thorough risk assessment taking into account all affected groups’. 

The spokesman said the assessment had reinforced the committee’s ‘confidence in the safety of all parties involved’. 

During his trial just less than a decade ago, Aylesbury Crown Court heard how van de Velde had travelled to the UK and met up with his victim and had sex with her. 

Sandra Beck, prosecuting, told the court at the time: ‘She describes that she had met Steven van de Velde on Facebook, they spoke regularly through that and he made her ‘feel special’.

‘She certainly made it clear she was seven years younger than him. This relationship over social media was taking place over a period of time,’ Ms Beck said. 

The volleyball player’s victim had added him as a friend on Facebook after he commented favourably on one of her photos, the court heard. 

The following day, after the pair slept in cardboard boxes under a stairway at Premier Inn, having again been unable to book a room, she took him to her empty house and he took her virginity.

Before he returned to the Netherlands van de Velde advised her to get the morning after pill as they had not used contraception. It was her visit to a family planning clinic that alerted the authorities, who stepped in because of the girl’s young age. 

The sportsman, of Westeinde 46, Voorburg, the Netherlands, was extradited to the UK on January 8, when he was arrested on suspicion of the sex acts. He later admitted three counts of rape against a child.

Linda Strudwick, defending, insisted it had been a ‘spur of the momedernt decision’ to fly to England and said van de Velde was not a ‘predatory young man.’

Aylesbury Crown Court heard that his victim had later self-harmed after the trauma of her encounter with him.

Judge Francis Sheridan even told van de Velde at the time: ‘Your hopes of representing your country now lie as a shattered dream.’ 

And his own defence counsel, Linda Strudwick, also said: ‘He’s lost a stellar sporting career and he’s being branded a rapist. It’s plainly a career end for him.’

However van de Velde, sentenced to four years in prison, was transferred from the UK back to the Netherlands to serve the remainder under a treaty between the two countries.

The treaty allowed for his charges and sentence to be adjusted in line with Dutch law, meaning the charge of rape was changed to ‘fornication’.

Due to the punishment being less harsh for this offence in the Netherlands, it mean van de Velde was eligible for release in 2017, having only served one year of his original sentence.

Following his release, he said: ‘I do want to correct all the nonsense that has been written about me when I was locked up.

‘I did not read any of it, on purpose, but I understand that it was quite bad, that I have been branded as a sex monster, as a paedophile. That I am not, really not.

‘Everyone can have their opinion about me, but it is only fair if they also know my side of the story.’

_{src: dailymail.co.uk}

The winner of a Mega Millions lottery jackpot worth over $1 billion has been accused in a lawsuit of lying about sharing his winnings with his family.

The lucky gambler, known only as John Doe in court papers, won $1.35bn and collected the lump sum payment of roughly $500m after taxes.

He then sued the mother of his daughter, named Sara Smith in court papers, after she broke a non-disclosure agreement by telling his family of his win.

Now, a new batch of court documents first reported on by The Daily Beast have complicated things further.

The winner’s father, a former police chief now in his 70s, wrote in a sworn declaration that his son misled him after telling him of his lottery win.

The lucky gambler won $1.35bn and collected the lump sum payment of roughly $500m after taxes after purchasing the ticket from Hometown Gas & Grill, seen here, in Lebanon Maine

In the latest court filings, Smith says Doe himself told his father and stepmom about his lottery win, which her lawyers claim ‘shatters the remaining shards of this suit’

On May 10, attorneys for Doe filed a motion for sanctions against Smith arguing that she had tried to publicly expose his identity.

Lawyers also claimed she made false claims about his conduct following the win, including an attempt to allegedly ‘kidnap’ their daughter which he insists is untrue.

Smith hit back with a sworn affidavit from Doe’s father, during which his father scolded his son for not keeping his word in the aftermath of his lottery win.

Doe said in the papers: ‘I made the mistake of telling my father that I had won the lottery without having him sign a confidentiality agreement.

‘Our relationship deteriorated quickly thereafter. I did not tell him what I was doing with my money, how I was going to benefit my daughter, or any facts other than the simple fact that I had won.’

His father said that his son had misled him about a number of things since the large win.

His declaration says: ‘February or March of 2023, my son came to my house in [REDACTED], and informed me and my wife that he won a large amount of money in the Maine State Lottery.

‘I understand that my son has stated that he told me nothing about his money ‘other than the simple fact that I had won.’ That is not true.

‘He told me he was going to build me a garage, and buy me some cars to fix up. He knew I previously enjoyed working on [and] fixing up old cars. 

‘He also told me that he wanted to buy us the house that he had lived in with me and his mother (my previous wife) when he was young. 

‘He said, ‘Find out what they want for it, and I’ll pay double,’ or words to that effect. This is not something my current wife and I wanted to do.’

The father claims his son told him he would set up a $1 million trust fund for him and that would enable him to have a monthly income.

On top of that, his father claims he said he would provide his parents with 24 hour care should they ever need it to avoid them going into a nursing home. 

The father said that his son had insisted that neither him or his stepmom have any communication with Smith. 

He continues: ‘Smith is the mother of our grandchild and we have had a good relationship with her over the years. 

‘I thought she was a good mother and we did not want to turn our back on her as he insisted.’ 

After the father told his son he didn’t recognize the person he had become, he said his son ‘got angry, calling me a dictator, and an a**hole’, adding: ”I have not heard from my son since, and he has not done any of [the] things he promised.’

Meanwhile Smith has claimed in the papers that Doe has a security team that have been following her and monitoring her electronic devices.

She said: ‘I often hear a clicking noise when I am on calls, including on calls with my attorneys, and I have had a number of unexplained dropped calls.’

Smith also claims that Doe ‘kidnapped’ their daughter and took her out of state for weeks, but he claims that he has joint custody of their daughter.

Doe also claimed that Smith agreed he could take the girl on vacation, and claimed he had kidnapped her after he refused to pay for her and her boyfriend to go on a ‘dream vacation’ to Disney World.

The lawyers for Smith say he originally filed the suit ‘because he didn’t want his own family to know that he won the lottery and was motivated to punish her after she rejected him’.

Her attorney’s claim he is using his new wealth to ‘try to overwhelm’ Smith with expensive litigation to ‘extort concessions’.

Doe beat the odds of 1 in 302.6 million to win the $1.35 billion jackpot – the second largest Mega Millions win ever, and the fourth-largest in U.S. history.

Mega Millions is played in 45 states as well as Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

_{src: dailymail.co.uk}