Latur: Police have registered a case against the owner of a cafe premises in Maharashtra’s Latur district where a minor girl was allegedly raped earlier this month, officials said.

The incident occurred at the cafe on December 4.

The minor girl, who belongs to the Dalit community, was allegedly kidnapped and raped by an 18-year-old man at the establishment, they said.

Police traced the girl within hours of registering the complaint. The main accused and two persons who operated the cafe were subsequently arrested and booked under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, and the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities Act), an official said on Tuesday.

The police on Tuesday also booked the owner of the premises, where the cafe was being operated, under section 21 (punishment for failure to report or record a case) of the POCSO Act.

The cafe owner had illegally created a secluded compartment near the kitchen area by charging extra money, offering private seating arrangements. Despite being aware of this unauthorised setup and its misuse, the premises owner allegedly ignored it and allowed the cafe owner to continue with the arrangement, the official said.

He also failed to report the matter to the police or other authorities concerned and is accused of deliberately suppressing information, the official added.

New Delhi, Dec 17: The government is reviewing the adequacy of the Copyright Act, 1957, to address emerging legal challenges arising from the use of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), Parliament was has been informed.

An eight-member committee has been constituted by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) on April 28 to study and analyse issues related to generative AI and its implications on copyright law, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jitin Prasada told the Lok Sabha in a written reply on Tuesday.

“Yes. An eight-member committee has been constituted by DPIIT on April 28, 2025, to study and analyse the emerging issues related to generative AI and its implications on Copyright law,” Prasada said.

He added that the committee has already finalised Part 1 of its working paper, which deals with the use of copyrighted content in AI training, and the same has been published for stakeholders’ feedback.

“The committee has finalised part 1 of the Working Paper on the issue of the use of copyrighted content in AI training. It has been published for stakeholders’ feedback,” the minister said.

Prasada further informed that issues relating to authorship and copyrightability of AI-generated works are currently under review and will be covered in Part 2 of the working paper.

Highlighting the mandate of the expert panel, the minister said its terms of reference (ToR) include identifying and analysing legal and policy issues arising from the use of Artificial Intelligence in the context of copyright, examining the adequacy of existing provisions of the Copyright Act, 1957, and making recommendations based on the analysis.

“To identify and analyse the legal and policy issues arising from the use of Artificial Intelligence in the context of copyright” and “to examine the adequacy of existing provisions of the Copyright Act, 1957 in addressing these issues” are among the key tasks assigned to the committee, Prasada said.

He also confirmed that the government is engaging with major stakeholders as part of the review process.

“Yes,” the minister said, in response to a query on whether the law department has engaged or plans to engage with major stakeholders, including news organisations, publishers and representatives from the technology sector, to ensure that legal reforms strike a balance between innovation and effective copyright protection.

Mumbai, Dec 17: Invoking the spirit of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, the Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray (UBT) on Wednesday claimed that the elections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), in particular, and 28 other civic bodies are a battle to protect Mumbai from being “carved away” from Maharashtra, terming the electoral exercise as a decisive struggle for the “existence of the Marathi Manoos”.

The party, its mouthpiece ‘Saamana’ said the existence of Mumbai was at stake, and if the city, built through the sacrifice of 106 martyrs, is lost, the Marathi people will face “a lifetime of slavery”. It gave a rallying cry for the Marathi people to “pick up the Bhavani sword of identity” and enter the electoral battlefield with the chant, “Har Har Mahadev!”

The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena in the Saamana editorial said the Maharashtra State Election Commission (SEC) has announced elections for 29 municipal corporations, including high-stakes Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Nashik, and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. “After a prolonged seven-and-a-half-year delay, the SEC has scheduled polling for January 15, 2026, with results to be declared the following day, January 16. The announcement follows a Supreme Court directive mandating that all local body elections in the state be completed by January 31, leaving the ‘Rahman Dacoit gang’, which had infiltrated 29 corporations, with no choice.”

The editorial alleged that the current Fadnavis-Shinde government intentionally deferred these elections to facilitate “looting” through the appointment of administrators. It claimed that the ruling coalition only proceeded due to judicial intervention, expressing concern that funds allegedly misappropriated during the administrative period will be funnelled into the upcoming campaigns.

The editorial further said, “While the Model Code of Conduct is in effect, it seems it is only for the opposition. Members of the ruling alliance and their ministers violate the code, laws and rules daily with impunity. Neither the state nor the Central Election Commission pays any attention to these violations because the poll body has become a ‘pet cat’ of the authorities. In such an unequal environment, this electoral struggle will take place, and the Marathi Manoos must win it at any cost.”

A major point of contention highlighted in the editorial is the state of the voter lists. The editorial claimed that the lists are “riddled with scams”, alleging the presence of over 15 lakh duplicate voters across the state, including 1,50,000 in Mumbai alone. “The SEC has reportedly used lists from July 1, 2025, claiming it lacks the authority to add or delete names, though it has implemented a ‘double star’ marking system to flag potential duplicate voters for field verification. If the Commission does not see this as serious, one must admit it wears a collar of slavery and helplessness put on by the government,” it alleged.

Stepping up the attack against the Mahayuti alliance, the Thackeray camp said that just before the enforcement of the Model Code of Conduct, the state government issued 49 Government Resolutions (GRs) and launched a spree of development projects, which were “deceptive ploys” intended to influence voters.

The editorial questioned the feasibility of election expenditure limits. While limits are set between Rs 9 lakh and Rs 15 lakh depending on the corporation’s grade, it alleged that in recent local polls, ruling alliance candidates spent between Rs 100 crore and Rs 150 crore per municipality, with votes being openly bought for as much as Rs 20,000.

Against this backdrop, the Thackeray camp claimed that the authorities would use “Saam, Daam, Dand, Bhed (persuasion, money, punishment, and division)” to carve Mumbai away from Maharashtra or to put it up for auction. However, it appealed to the Marathi people not to lose confidence.