Sugar-free products with sugar. ‘Real’ juices with artificial ingredients. Misleading food ads are fuelling a public health crisis in India. Help Scroll expose the systemic failure. Support our investigation.

Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal said that he would not appear in person or through a lawyer before a Delhi High Court bench of Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma. The judge is hearing the Central Bureau of Investigation’s challenge to him and several others being discharged in the liquor policy case.

The former Delhi chief minister’s comments came a week after Sharma on April 20 rejected his plea that she recuse herself from hearing the case. During the hearings, Kejriwal had raised concerns about her “perceived ideological proximity”, referring to Sharma attending events of an organisation linked to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

Kejriwal had also contended that the judge’s children had been empanelled as counsels by the Union government and had been allocated cases by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who is representing the CBI in the liquor policy case. Read on.

The Bharatiya Janata Party now has 113 MPs in the 245-member Rajya Sabha after chairperson CP Radhakrishnan accepted the merger of the Aam Aadmi Party’s legislature party in the Upper House of Parliament with that of the Hindutva party. AAP now has three MPs each in the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha.

The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance now has 137 members in the Rajya Sabha. A party or a coalition needs the support of 123 members to command a majority in the House. Read on.

Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Union minister Dinesh Trivedi has been named India’s next high commissioner to Bangladesh. This marks a rare appointment of a non-Indian Foreign Services officer to the post.

The appointment comes as India seeks to reset ties with Bangladesh. Relations between the two countries were strained in 2024, when former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled to India following widespread protests against her government. Bangladesh has repeatedly sought Hasina’s extradition after a tribunal sentenced her to death for alleged crimes against humanity, a request India has not accepted. Read on.

The police in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghazipur have filed cases against the social media handles of the Congress and the Samajwadi Party for allegedly spreading rumours about the case linked to the death of a teenage girl on April 15. The social media accounts were posting false information, the police alleged, adding that the case has been filed for statements allegedly conducing to public mischief.

The 17-year-old girl had gone missing on the night of April 14. Her body was found about 3 km from her home in a river the next morning. Her family has alleged that she was sexually assaulted and murdered.

The administration has also imposed prohibitory orders in the district till April 30, restricting demonstrations related to the case. Read on.

If you haven’t already, sign up for our Daily Brief newsletter.