Hathras investigation exposes UP police

The gangrape and killing of a Dalit woman became a national flashpoint—as the UP police did its best to cover up the case, and protect the suspects (See our explainers here and here). The investigation was turned over to the CBI after the courts intervened. Now the agency has filed a chargesheet which is damning:

• The police did not record the woman’s statement when she first came to the station to file the complaint. 
• They twice ignored her allegation of sexual assault.
• The refusal to conduct a medical examination led to the loss of critical forensic evidence. 
• Even though she named three men, only one name was recorded in the FIR.

The crime: According to the CBI, the victim and one of the men were in a clandestine relationship—which ended when it was revealed to her parents. When she cut off all ties, he became angry and retaliated. Her family continues to deny acquaintance between her and the accused: “The entire village is against us and I believe they would say anything to falsify the crime that took place.” CBI is pointing to phone records of over 105 calls as evidence. Indian Express has more on this.

Also this: The victim’s family want to shift out of the village to Delhi because they fear for their life—and have asked the Allahabad High Court to transfer the case out of UP. The Telegraph has that story.

In other caste-related news: In India, various localities and bastis signal their residents’ caste as loudly as a name—all thanks to segregation. Maharashtra has vowed to undo all this history in a spree of renaming:

“Keeping that in mind and to maintain social harmony and goodwill in the state to increase national unity, all caste-based names of areas and localities in rural and urban parts of the state will be changed.”

They will instead be named after well-known social workers or local activists. Most folks are unsurprisingly sceptical. (The Guardian)

The great pandemic: A quick update

• US President-elect Joe Biden took his Pfizer jab on television to reassure Americans that it's safe.
• India has temporarily banned flights from the UK until January 1 due to the new strain of coronavirus that is spreading rapidly through the country (which we explained here). 
• No, the mutation will not affect India’s vaccine strategy since our most likely candidates—including Oxford—target various parts of the virus, and not just its spike protein.
•  The travel ban on the UK may lead to severe shortages in goods—including food, vaccines and more—because France has shut its borders. And now freight trucks are stuck either in Dover, or refusing to enter the port. If that 48-hour ban carries on much longer, it will be a very dark Christmas for the UK. Also this: “Around 10,000 trucks pass through the port of Dover every day, accounting for about 20% of the country’s trade in goods.”
• Tens of thousands are being tested in Thailand after an outbreak at the country’s biggest seafood market. 
• Austria will offer free tests to its entire population of 8.8 million citizens—and throw in a little incentive: those who test negative will have “more freedom” than their infected peers.
• Denmark is planning to dig up four million dead mink—who were hastily culled when the government realised that a new strain was jumping from the mink to humans. The new plan: “The exhumation of about 4 million mink will take place in May, with a six-month waiting period deemed sufficient to ensure the bodies will be free of the virus and safe to handle. Once dug up, the mink will be incinerated as corporate waste.” Nice. 
• A must read: Harsh Mander in Article 14 reveals his near-death experience in a leading public hospital in Delhi: “I requested that I be admitted to a general ward of a premiere public hospital, not a private room; and what I experienced there is as close to hell that I can imagine. I’m not exaggerating.”

Delhi High Court’s tough ruling on Amazon

Quick background: Soon after Future Retail inked a Rs 250 billion deal to sell its chain of stores to Reliance, Amazon raised furious objections. The reason: last year, Amazon had bought a 49% stake in another of its companies—Future Coupons. And that agreement was based on a secret clause: Future Retail couldn’t make any deal without the approval of Future Coupons (we explained this at length here).

The court battle: Amazon took its case to an independent arbitration organisation in Singapore—which put a hold on the Reliance buyout. Also: it filed complaints with various regulatory authorities to stop the deal. Future Retail went to the Delhi High Court, claiming that Amazon has  no right to interfere in its business—since it owns 49% of Future Coupons, which in turn only owns 9.82% of Future Retail. 

The ruling: On the face of it, Future Retail lost. The court refused to interfere in Amazon’s efforts to block the sale. But it also offered a dangerous assessment of Amazon’s case. It essentially said: Yes, Amazon does indeed have the legal power to stop the Reliance deal due to its agreements, but those rights are in clear violation of the government’s foreign investment rules. Heads I win, tails you lose. BloombergQuint has more on the ruling.

Doing far better: Nine-year old Ryan Kaji (and future Jeff Bezos?) who is #1 on the list of top YouTube earners. His income this year: $29.5 million—and that’s for 12 billion views of toy unboxing videos. Hope you’re hanging your head in shame. Hustle has the entire list.

Keeping him company: 80-year-old Kanta Prasad—the owner of ‘Baba ka Dhaba’—who now has a new restaurant in Malviya Nagar. He’s even hired two chefs. Indian Express has more.

Four studies of note

One: New evidence suggests that early humans hibernated during the winter months much as bears do today. The proof: 400,000-year old remains found in an ancient grave in Spain:

“The scientists argue that lesions and other signs of damage in fossilised bones of early humans are the same as those left in the bones of other animals that hibernate. These suggest that our predecessors coped with the ferocious winters at that time by slowing down their metabolisms and sleeping for months.”

The Guardian has more on this big reveal. 

Two: We have received an “intriguing radio wave emission” from the direction of Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the sun. Why this is intriguing: It’s transmitting at 980 Megahertz—“which is a region typically bereft of transmissions from human-made satellites and spacecraft.” And we don’t know any “natural” or “biological” way to transmit at that band. OTOH, even scientists who stumbled upon this ‘transmission’ remain staunchly sceptical about the possibility of a communication with ET—despite being super excited at the same time. Scientific American has more.

Three: A new survey of Indian millennials shows that the youngest and least affluent have borne the brunt of the pandemic. And the richer millennials are also the most optimistic about their prospects in 2021. One surprising point of data: “large section of respondents, especially among the young, said that their mental health has improved over the past few months." (Mint)

Four: A new study found one single dietary condition can significantly increase your chances of dying:

“[People who ate lots of ultra-processed foods—items like frozen meals, hot dogs, and salty snacks—were 26% more likely to die of any cause. They also had double the risk of dying from cardiovascular diseases like heart attacks and stroke.‌”

In other words, it doesn’t matter if the food is healthy, what matters is if it is processed or not. (Inverse)

Three strange architectural things

One: Remember the consolation mosque offered to Muslims in place of the now destroyed Babri Masjid? Well, the details have been unveiled and sound impressive:

"The rectangular layout of the complex in Dhannipur village also includes a speciality hospital, community kitchen and a museum in a multi-storey vertical structure. These will be metres away from the mosque and a century-old Sufi shrine will be in between. The mosque will be able to accommodate 2,000 namazis at a time and will be four times bigger than Babri Masjid. The 300-bed hospital complex will be six times the size of the mosque."

But oddly, unlike any other mosque, it will not have domes, minarets or arches, and instead will have “a cosmic design” like this:

Hmm, is a temple a temple without its gopuram/shikhara? Can a mosque be a mosque without its minaret/dome? 

Two: OTOH, the new 12,000-acre ‘model city’ proposed in Ayodhya will strictly adhere to ‘Vedic planning principles”—and will be “a holy city for Hindus as the Vatican is for Catholics.” Aap pattern samajhiye. (Times of India)

Three: Also headed for a makeover: The Somnath temple in Saurashtra whose 1,450 spires will be gold-plated thanks to 500 families who contributed their hard-earned money to this urgent cause. All this gilding will be completed by 2021. Aap priorities samajhiye. (Times of India)

Ed Sheeran’s gotta song for you

Ed Sheeran released a surprise single just in time for Christmas titled ‘Afterglow’. Yenjoy!