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Plugged-In: FIR filed against Sengar, CJI is master of roster & new home for CSK

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Just in: The UP police has registered a case against BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar under sections of rape, POCSO Act. He will soon be questioned by the SIT. The BJP MLA has been accused of rape by a teenager from Unnao, while his brother Atul has been arrested under murder charges for the death of the victim’s father while he was in custody.

Kuldeep Singh Sengar had made a midnight visit to Lucknow police Wednesday. According to Hindustan Times, Sengar was heard telling police, “When there is an arrest warrant, call me.”

The Unnao rape survivor told her story to ThePrint’s Ananya Bhardwaj yesterday. As the investigation gets underway, the teen said her father’s death had robbed her of hope, while police questioned “inconsistencies” in her account. The account of her alleged rape, abduction, police negligence, her father’s death and Sengar’s political clout is difficult to read, but you need to.

A protest in Bengaluru. | Wikimedia commons

When the coincidences are too many, and suspicious: The UP police SIT’s report has suggested police collusion to save the MLA’s brother, who is accused of thrashing the alleged rape victim’s father. The father was attacked by Atul Sengar a month ago to force the family to withdraw their complaint, but though a complaint was also filed against the MLA’s brother, only the father was booked and arrested. When the father was first taken to hospital on the day of the alleged assault, he reportedly had seven visible injuries on his body. “Two days later, the number of injuries rose to 18, the SIT report says,” Ananya Bhardwaj reports from Unnao.

CJI ‘first among equals’, says SC: Dismissing a petition that sought to regulate the CJI’s administrative powers to allocate cases, the Supreme Court said the CJI was “first among equals” and alone had the power to constitute benches and assign cases. The court took only five minutes to declare that “there cannot be a presumption of mistrust. The oath of office demands nothing less”, The Times of India reports front page today.

President Ram Nath Kovind with Chief Justice of India Deepak Misra.
A file photo of President Ram Nath Kovind with Dipak Misra after the latter was sworn in as CJI. | Source: pib.nic.in

However, the ‘very life and existence’ of the Supreme Court is ‘under threat’, Justice Kurian Joseph has said in a strongly worded letter to Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra. The letter says this is the first time in history that the government is “sitting on the collegium’s recommendation to elevate a judge and a senior advocate to the apex court”, The Indian Express reports.

In a twist of fate, looks like Mark Zuckerberg’s own privacy was violated. The Facebook CEO told US lawmakers Wednesday that “he was among the 87 million or so Facebook Inc users whose data was improperly shared with political consultancy Cambridge Analytica”, The Times of India tells us. Incidentally, you can now check on Facebook whether your data was compromised by going to their help centre. And in case you want to know what “your pay apps share with third parties”, The Indian Express analysed privacy policies for you, including the use of your Aadhaar and bank data.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg | Win McNamee/Getty Images
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg | Win McNamee/Getty Images

The Hindu reports that during Wednesday’s Jammu’s bandh, the Jammu High Court Bar Association (JHCBA) reiterated  their demand for a CBI inquiry in the Kathua rape and murder, and threatened to intensify protests “if you (the government) do not throw Rohingya out of Jammu, we will make the city Rohingya Muslim-free”. The Indian Express also reports the communal angle being given to the crime, but the news doesn’t make it to The Times of India front page.

The Chennai Super Kings have a new home — Pune. IPL matches, which had returned to Chennai after a gap of two years, “have been moved out of the city after growing protests against the central government for its failure to set up a Cauvery management board,” Hindustan Times reports as its lead story today. The Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) gave CSK four venue options — Visakhapatnam, Rajkot, Thiruvananthapuram and Pune, and the team chose Pune.

Chennai Super Kings play against the Kolkata Knight Riders at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium during the 2008 IPL | Commons

In the Valley of violence: A soldier and four civilians were killed, while more than a hundred others were injured, “during an anti-terror operation at Khudwani village in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district and the subsequent civilian protests Wednesday”, The Times of India reports. Schools and colleges have been shut in Kulgam, and the internet has been suspended.

Differently abled people are still barred from undertaking the Haj as the pilgrimage is physically demanding and there have been “instances of such people indulging in begging”, which is prohibited in Saudi Arabia, the Centre told the Delhi High Court yesterday, Business Standard reports.

Haryana govt withdraws forms that asked school students whether their parents are ‘engaged in any unclean occupation’. Apart from listing their religion, caste, and the Aadhaar details of their parents, the 100-point admission form also asked whether parents had any genetic disorder. For very obvious reasons, the form was severely criticised, and the opposition Congress accused Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar of “racial and religious profiling”, The Indian Express reports.

Up, up, and away! “Navigation satellite IRNSS-1I was launched early morning on Thursday from Sriharikota”, The Hindu lets us know. This was ISRO’s second attempt to launch a satellite that has had its assembly, integration, and testing (AIT) done by private companies, ThePrint‘s Sandhya Ramesh reported Wednesday.

ISRO
Panoramic view of the PSLV-C41 on the first launch pad | ISRO

Business Class

Mehul Choksi is in the news, again. This time, the CBI is investigating the diamantaire for a Rs 4,918 crore loan that he got from a consortium of 31 banks led by ICICI Bank, reports ThePrint.

Indian e-commerce player Flipkart defended itself before the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) against a Rs 110 crore tax demand. The Economic Times reports, “Flipkart has challenged the income tax department’s demand that it reclassify marketing expenses and discounts as capital expenditure, arguing before the ITAT that tax cannot be levied on ‘fictional income’.”

The RBI has ruled out any relaxation in NPA (non-performing asset) norms. The Economic Times reports RBI governor Urjit Patel told parliamentarians in a closed-door meeting Tuesday that “…tough norms will discipline borrowers and prevent banks from pushing distressed loans under the carpet”.

RBI
Reserve Bank of India | Photo by Getty Images

News it’s just kinda cool to know

What all our Facebook data actually looks like: In the rural western town of Forest City, North Carolina, tens of thousands of computer servers tucked inside three well-guarded and ever-expanding buildings house Facebook’s data, one of the tech giant’s four data centres in the US. “The Facebook property is worth about $650 million, according to municipal records, accounting for nearly half of the entire town’s value,” NDTV reports.

India didn’t help a Dubai princess run away and an NGO doesn’t like it: ‘Detained in Dubai’, an NGO that says it “assist[s] people who have become victims of injustice in the United Arab Emirates”, claims “India helped the UAE ‘illegally’ and ‘violently’ intercept a ship that was carrying runaway Dubai princess Sheikha Latifa Al Maktoum”, India Today reports.

Sheikha Latifa Al Maktoum | YouTube screengrab/Escape from Dubai

Point of View

After the Kathua rape and murder case, it is Unnao. An MLA of the ruling party has been accused of rape and complicity in murder, but the hands of law are falling short to catch him. The Times of India writes in its editorial, “…What happens if the criminal is within one’s own ranks, say an MLA cosy with the police?”

The central government has put out new draft rules on cattle trade for slaughter. They are aimed at replacing the rules notified last year, which not just created chaos but also made cattle trade too risky. The Hindu, in its editorial, has welcomed the new draft, writing, “Good sense appears to have prevailed at last.”

Cows at a shelter in Maharashtra | Allison Joyce/Getty Images
Cows at a shelter in Maharashtra | Allison Joyce/Getty Images

The Supreme Court order on SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act has generated enormous debate about Dalit issues in the country. Former UGC chairperson Sukhadeo Thorat, in his column in The Indian Express, writes, “…Developments indicate that during the four years of BJP rule, the Dalits are losing the gains they had made earlier.”

The terms of reference (ToR) of the 15th Finance Commission remain in the news with chief ministers of southern states raising concerns over them. Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, in his column in The Hindu, writes, “The Finance Commission must respect principles of equity and fairness in allocating resources between Centre, states.”

ICICI Bank is in the eye of a storm because of the ongoing investigation against  CEO Chanda Kochhar for ‘ICICI Bank-Videocon deal’. Saubhik Chakrabarti, in his column in The Times of India, writes that Kochhar should step aside for the time being, in the larger interest of the bank.

Profile Photo of Chanda Kochhar | Commons
Profile Photo of Chanda Kochhar | Commons

The simmering anger in the South regarding the ToR of the 15th Finance Commission may ignite a debate about a separate Dravida state. DMK spokesperson Manuraj Shunmugasundaram writes in his column in The Indian Express, “The rising discontent in South India could revive the idea of Dravidian Cooperation once articulated by DMK founder Annadurai.”

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