The Delhi High Court is all set to pronounce the verdict on Delhi Chief Minister (CM) Arvind Kejrwal’s plea in connection with the Delhi Excise Policy case at 2:30 PM on Tuesday, 9th April 2024. In his petition, Kejriwal challenged his arrest and was remanded by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case that has been linked to the liquid policy case.

The Enforcement Directorate arrested Arvind Kejriwal, the chief of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), on 21st March 2024. The agency accused Delhi CMs of being the ‘kingpin’ and a key conspirator of the alleged scam in the Delhi Excise Policy case. He was later directed to the ED’s custody and then to judicial custody until 15th April. Kejriwal is currently held up in Delhi’s Tihar Jail.

Last week, on 3rd April 2024, the high court kept the matter reserved after the conclusion of detailed arguments from both sides, the ED and Arvind Kejriwal. During the hearing, Kejriwal questioned the timing of the arrest, which happened just before the upcoming Lok Sabha Elections 2024. CM Kejriwal’s lawyer said, “The timing reeks of democracy issue, level playing field issue…The only object is to humiliate and insult. The true object of the arrest is to disable me,”

Meanwhile, the ED has opposed Kejrwail’s plea, stating that the investigation is still not covered and is in the nascent stages. The ED further claims that AAP is a company under section 70 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. According to ED, Kejriwal’s role is not required in the case. But “what is required to be looked at is that he was responsible for the affairs of the company/party,” the ED was quoted by the legal news portal and Bench as saying.

However, the Bench of Justice Swarna Kanta Sharma has fixed the matter for pronouncement of order at 2:30 PM on Tuesday.

A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) worker has been detained for alleged involvement in the Bengaluru Rameshwaram Cafe blast case, reports claimed on Friday. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) detained Sai Prasad, a BJP activist, in connection with the Rameshwaram Cafe blast, according to Asianet News.

Sources informed India Today that the BJP worker was allegedly named by two mobile shop workers who were questioned by the NIA Last week. He was detained from Thirthahalli, the Shivamogga district of Karnataka.

Investigations revealed that Sai Prasad allegedly had contacts with suspects in Thirthahalli and Chikkamagaluru. The NIA had earlier conducted raids on the residences of two youths and a mobile shop owner in Thirthahalli. It was also revealed that police personnel in Chikkamagaluru assisted the mother of the main conspirator in securing a rented house.

Muzammil Shareef, the alleged mastermind behind the Bengaluru cafe blast, originally from Kalasa, relocated his mother to Chikkamagluru with the assistance of the inspector, the report added. Shareef, the key conspirator, was detained by the NIA following massive raids across multiple locations in three states in the case, news agency PTI reported. He was spiked up as a co-conspirator as the NIA teams cracked down at 18 locations, including 12 in Karnataka, five in Tamil Nadu, and one in Uttar Pradesh.

The NIA, who took over the case on March 3rd, said on Friday that the agency identified the accused person who carried out the IED blast as Mussavir Hussain Shazib and the co-conspirator as Abdul Mateen Taahaa. They’re both from Thirthahalli in Shivamogga district.

The probe further revealed that Muzammil Shareef had extended logistic support to the two identified accused in the case, involving an IED explosion at the Cafe located at ITPL, Brookefield, Bengaluru, on March 1st, 2024.

The NIA said it has been summoning and examining all of the acquaintances, including college and school time friends, of the absconding and arrested accused persons.

The rapidly rising death toll in Gaza has captured all the headlines ever since the Israel-Hamas war started in October 2023. With more than 32,000 people dead, mostly innocent women and children, the international agencies have decided to term the war catastrophic for Palestinians in Gaza. One of the latest reports released by the United Nations and World Bank has outlined the financial implications of the Israel-Hamas war as it estimated that $1.8 billion USD worth of critical infrastructure in Gaza has taken damage due to the conflict.

The 1.8 billion dollar amount is 97% of the combined economic output of the West Bank and Gaza in 2022. According to the report, the majority of the damage has occurred in the governorates of Gaza, North Gaa, and Khan Younis.

The report adds, “Over four-fifths of damages are concentrated in the two sectors of residential buildings (72% of the total) and the commerce, industry, and services sector (9% of the total), with the remaining 19% of damages sustained on other critical infrastructure and services such as education, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), health, energy, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), municipal services, and transport,”

The war between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas began on October 7th, 2023, after hundreds of Hamas militants barged into Israel’s territory and ended up killing more than 1,400 people. The Hamas terrorists also ended up taking more than 200 people hostage, and 150 of them are still in the group’s captivity in Gaza,

The interim damage assessment report also mentions the alarming state of food insecurity in Gaza and calls the region on the brink of famine, with acute malnutrition and food insecurity.

Palestinians in Gaza now make up 80% of all the people facing severe hunger or famine worldwide. Palestinians are also getting less than half of the daily water rations required for short-term emergency survival, and further reductions are likely as fuel supplies drop. More than a million people have now lost their homes.

A fresh plea has been filed in Delhi High Court on Friday for removing Arvind Kejriwal from the post of Delhi Chief Minister. The petition came a day after the Delhi High Court dismissed a similar plea.

On Thursday, the Delhi High Court rejected the public interest litigation wanting the removal of Kejriwal from the post of Delhi Chief Minister, saying the petitioner did not showcase any legal provision restricting Aam Aadmi Party leader from running the government after arrest to warrant any judicial interference.

The Bench comprising acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet PS Arora stated “”There may be difficulties. It will be practically very, very difficult. We accept all those. (But) Is there any scope for judicial interference in this, on this issue?”

The court concluded “”This court is of the view that there is no scope for judicial interference vis-a-vis the relief sought for removal of respondent no. 4 (Kejriwal). It is for the other wings of the government to examine in accordance with the law,”

Calls for Arvind Kejriwal’s removal as the chief minister of the national capital grew after he was arrested in connection with a money laundering case linked to the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy. The Enforcement Directorate arrested Kejriwal on 21 March 2024. He was sent to ED custody until 28 March, and his custodial remand was extended on Thursday, 1 April 2024.
Several opposition leaders have been protesting Kejriwal’s arrest, accusing the BJP-ruled center of misusing the central agencies ahead of the Lok Sabha elections 2024.