The Catch Up: 19 August

3 Things

This is the Catch Up on 3 Things by The Indian Express and I'm Flora Swain.
Today is the 19th of August and here are the headlines.
Sixteen external and nine internal injury marks, death due to manual strangulation and smothering, and forceful penetration – these are among findings of the post-mortem report of the junior doctor who was raped and murdered at Kolkata’s R G Kar medical college and hospital, it is learnt. The post-mortem examination was done from 6:10 pm to 7:10 pm on August 9. It states that “death was due to effects of manual strangulation associated with smothering” and the “manner of death” is “homicidal”.
A 13-year-old girl was allegedly sexually assaulted and others were harassed during an NCC camp held earlier this month at a private school in Tamil Nadu’s Krishnagiri district. Eight people have been arrested in connection with the case, including Sivaraman, the district youth wing secretary of Naam Tamilar Katchi – a regional political group. Sivaraman, who had organised the camp, was the one who allegedly sexually assaulted the girl. The principal of the school where the camp was held was also among those arrested.
Backing the triple talaq law, the Centre has told the Supreme Court that the Act “helps in ensuring the larger constitutional goals of gender justice and gender equality of married Muslim women and helps subserve their fundamental rights of non-discrimination and empowerment.” The Centre said this in response to an affidavit filed earlier this month in response to a plea. Explaining the context in which the law came to be enacted, the government said “essentially” the “practice” of talaq-e-biddat or instantaneous triple talaq “legitimised and institutionalised abandonment of wives by their husbands” and “did not simply result in a private injury but in a public wrong as it militate against the rights of women and the social institution of marriage itself”.
Taking aim at the doctors’ strike following the rape and murder of a junior doctor in Kolkata, TMC MP Arup Chakraborty said “we will not save you” if public anger falls on the doctors due to their strike. He said, quote, “In the name of the movement, you may go home or go about with your boyfriend. If a patient dies because of your strike and public anger falls on you, we will not save you." Unquote. When reporters asked about the statement after he got off stage, he stuck to it. “Doctors are striking. In the name of a strike, if they go out and people don’t get treatment, naturally their anger will fall on them. We can’t save them,” he said.
Iltija Mufti, the daughter of People’s Democratic Party chief and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, is set to contest the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections from the constituency of Bijbehara in Anantnag. Bijbehara is the family’s home seat and its stronghold. This will be 37-year-old Iltija’s first electoral foray. It is learnt that Mehbooba will not be contesting the Assembly elections. The party is set to release its first list of candidates on Monday for constituencies in south Kashmir, which are scheduled to go to polls on September 18 in the first phase.
This was the Catch Up on 3 Things by The Indian Express.