‘Bodies after bodies are coming’: Death and devastation in Delhi
Crematoriums and burial grounds are running out of space in the capital. A crematorium ground in New Delhi with pyres of people who died of Covid-19. | Danish Siddiqui/Reuters
On Tuesday afternoon, advocate Anjali Chauhan stood facing the body of her mentor at Dayanand Muktidham Crematorium in Central Delhi. Her mentor, Supreme Court lawyer Anip Sachthey, 65, was battling Covid-19 as well as continuing his treatment for liver cancer when his oxygen levels dropped on Monday, Chauhan said.
His family secured an oxygen cylinder after hours of searching, but it could not be linked to the venturi mask, said Chauhan. Sachthey died at his residence that evening. He had served as a senior executive member of the Supreme Court Bar Association.
No construction is allowed in Delhi’s lockdown unless workers live on site. But 180 vehicles have been given permission to bring workers to the Central Vista.
Illustration by Nithya Subramanian
It took nearly two years and more than 50 hearings for a district court in Delhi to acquit journalist Priya Ramani in a defamation case filed by former Union Minister MJ Akbar.
The trigger for the defamation case came amidst the #MeToo campaign in 2018 where scores of women took to social media to speak up about incidents of sexual harassment. Several who had previously been inhibited by fear made allegations about prominent men in the field of journalism, advertising, arts, music and sports.
On Twitter, Ramani accused Akbar of harassment in an incident that had taken place in a hotel room in 1993, when she was a young reporter and he was an established newspaper editor. After that, 20 women accused Akbar of grave sexual misconduct during his years as editor.
Updated Feb 17, 2021 · 07:24 pm Journalist Priya Ramani (left) with her lawyer Rebecca John at Rouse Avenue Court in Delhi after the verdict. | Scroll.in/Vijayta Lalwani
A Delhi court on Wednesday acquitted journalist Priya Ramani in the defamation case filed by former Union minister MJ Akbar,
Bar and Bench reported. Ramani had accused Akbar of sexual harassment during the #MeToo movement in India in 2018.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Ravindra Kumar Pandey, while reading out the judgement said that a woman has the right to “put her grievance even after decades”, also noting that the Vishakha guidelines were not relevant at the time of the alleged incident.
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