Breaking News June 21 Highlights: Delhi HC Stays Kejriwal's Bail, AAP Chief To Remain In Jail; Pune Teen's Father Granted Bail

Thank you for joining us in our love coverage of the top and breaking news stories for Friday June 21. This live blog is now closed. Here is a look at the top events and headlines for the day -

Pune Porsche Crash Case: Father Of Accused Teen Granted Bail | FULL STORY HERE

Delhi High Court Stays Bail Order For Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi CM To Remain In Jail | READ FULL STORY HERE

Amid Israel And Hezbollah's Conflict In Lebanon, A Warning For Cyprus | FULL STORY

Delhi Water Crisis: Atishi Begins Indefinite Hunger Strike, Sunita Kejriwal Comes Out In Support | FULL STORY HERE

Watch: Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un Take Turns To Drive Each Other In Russian Luxury Car | FULL STORY HERE

Hello Readers! Through this breaking news live blog, we bring you the latest updates on the most important developments in India and across the globe. Today we primarily will be focusing on the following:

• Heatwave and weather-related updates

• Reactions on Kejriwal's bail

• NEET row

• UGC-NET row

• Yoga day celebration

• Israel-Hamas war developments

International Yoga Day celebrations 2024: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh addressed an event in Mathura. Delhi LG VK Saxena was seen performing various asanas during the event at Baansera, Sarai Kale Khan.

Follow all Yoga Day updates here.

A Union Health Ministry team visited AIIMS and three other Centre-run hospitals- RML, Safdarjung, and Lady Hardinge- on Thursday to take stock of the preparedness for heatstroke patients and also to assess the number of deaths due to the illness over the last few days.

The three-member team was constituted by Dr Atul Goel, Director General of Health Services (DGHS) on the instructions of Union Health Minister J P Nadda.

Amid the intensifying row and demands from the opposition to re-conduct medical entrance exam NEET-UG, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Thursday said isolated incidents of malpractices should not affect lakhs of students who cleared the examination rightfully.

Terming the leak of the UGC-NET exam's question paper an "institutional failure" of the National Testing Agency (NTA), he said the government will constitute a high-level panel to look into the functioning of the agency.

Around 50 students detained; ABVP joins agitation New Delhi, Jun 20 (PTI) Around 50 students from different universities and members of various students' outfits were detained on Thursday while they were protesting against the cancellation of the UGC-NET examination and irregularities in the NEET, officials said.

The students were detained from outside the Ministry of Education as well as the Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's residence here in central Delhi.

Early morning rainfall on Friday disrupted International Yoga Day events in Kashmir, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to lead the celebrations on the banks of the Dal Lake, officials here said.

The main yoga event at Sher-i-Kashmir International Conference Centre (SKICC) was scheduled to start at 6:30 am.

Moderate to heavy rainfall has been reported from across the Valley, making it difficult to hold open-air yoga events, the officials said. Heavy rainfall is going on around Dal Lake where Prime Minister Modi was to lead the main yoga event, they said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed at least a dozen deals with his Vietnamese counterpart on Thursday and offered to supply fossil fuels, including natural gas, to Vietnam during a state visit that comes as Moscow is seeking to bolster ties in Asia to offset its growing international isolation over its war in Ukraine.

Putin and President To Lam agreed to further cooperate in education, science and technology, oil and gas exploration and clean energy. The two countries also agreed to work on a roadmap for a nuclear science and technology centre in Vietnam.

(AP inputs)

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said that anyone involved in using inside information to bet on the date of Britain's July 4 national election should be expelled from his Conservative Party.

Sunak said on the BBC on Thursday that he was "incredibly angry, incredibly angry" to learn of allegations that Conservative politicians betted on the election date, and that they "should face the full force of the law" if they were found to have broken the law.

"It's right that they are being investigated properly by the relevant law enforcement authorities," he said. "If anyone is found to have broken the rules, not only should they face the full consequences of the law, I will make sure that they are booted out of the Conservative Party."

(AP Inputs)

Addressing the nation on International Yoga Day, PM Modi said, "As we mark the 10th International Day of Yoga, I urge everyone to make it a part of their daily lives. Yoga fosters strength, good health and wellness. Wonderful to join this year's programme in Srinagar."

A South Korea activists' group said Friday it again flew large balloons carrying anti-North Korean propaganda leaflets toward North Korea, adding to a campaign that aggravated animosities between the rivals and prompted a resumption of Cold War-style psychological warfare along their border.

The South Korean civilian group, led by North Korean defector Park Sang-hak, said it floated 20 balloons attached with 3,00,000 propaganda leaflets, 5,000 USB sticks with South Korean pop songs and TV dramas, and 3,000 US dollar bills from the South Korean border town of Paju on Thursday night.

(AP Inputs)

The NEET scorecard of Anurag Yadav, one of the four people arrested in the alleged paper leak case, showed that he had scored 185 marks out of 720. While his total rounded off percentile score was, a look at his scores in individual subjects highlighted a bizarre disparity amongst numbers. While he obtained 85.8 percentile in Physics and 51 percentile in Biology, chemistry percentile was as low as 5.

Read full story

On the occasion of International Day of Yoga, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel on Friday said his government will establish 51 ‘Yoga Studios’ across the state to promote the ancient practice which “benefited people immensely” during COVID.

The CM was at Nadabet in Banaskantha district near the India-Pakistan border to take part in the state-level event to mark the 10th International Day of Yoga.

Several state ministers and Assembly Speaker Shankar Chaudhary attended the event at Nadabet. This is the first time Yoga Day is being celebrated at Nadabet, said an official release.

Four people, including the driver, died when an HRTC (Himachal Road Transport Corporation) bus met with a road accident in Chori Kenchi area of Jubbal in Shimla district. Seven people injured in the incident

The main yoga event led by PM Narendra Modi took place at Srinagar's Shera-i-Kashmir International Conference Centre (SKICC). This morning, the 30-minute yoga session which was scheduled to begin at 6:30 am was disrupted by early morning rainfall. The event was being attended by, among others, Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha and Ayush Minister Prataprao Ganpatrao Jadhav.

Read full story

The national capital on Friday witnessed a partly cloudy sky with the mercury settling at 28.4 degrees Celsius, the Met office said.

According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), thunderstorms accompanied by light rain are likely in some parts of the city later in the day. The maximum temperature is likely to settle around 40 degrees Celsius.

The IMD has predicted some relief from the searing heatwave in the city over the weekend as the sky is likely to remain partly cloudy on Saturday and Sunday.

The Delhi High Court on Friday said the trial court order granting bail to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal shall not be given effect to till it hears the ED’s plea challenging the relief granted in the money laundering case linked to the alleged excise scam.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) mentioned its plea challenging the trial court order for an urgent hearing before a bench of Justices Sudhir Kumar Jain and Ravinder Dudeja, which said the case file will come to it in 10-15 minutes and after that it will hear the matter.

Read full story

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to defer the implementation of the three criminal laws, which are set to be rolled out on July 1.

In a letter to the prime minister, Banerjee said the deferment would enable a renewed Parliamentary review of the criminal laws.

The new laws are the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and the Bharatiya Sakshya Act. The laws will replace the colonial-era Indian Penal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Indian Evidence Act of 1872 respectively.

(With PTI Inputs)

The toll in Kallakurichi hooch tragedy rose to 47 and the condition of at least 30 people is critical, the Tamil Nadu government said on Friday.

The mortal remains of 29 people who died till Thursday were handed over to their relatives and the bodies were either buried or cremated, Kallakurichi District Collector Prasanth M S said.

“A total of 165 people were admitted to the Kallakurichi, JIPMER, Salem and Mundiambakkam government hospitals after consuming spurious liquor. Of them, 47 have died so far. The condition of 30 among 118 undergoing treatment is critical,” he said.

Amid intensifying water crisis is in Delhi, Water Minister Atishi is set to begin her indefinite hunger strike in south Delhi's Bhogal at noon to press on her demand for getting 100 million gallons of water per day from Haryana.

In a post on X, the minister said despite all efforts, the Haryana government was not releasing the full share of Delhi's water.

Before starting the indefinite fast, Atishi visited Rajghat to pay tributes to Mahatma Gandhi who taught that the path of 'Satyagraha' has to be adopted to struggle against injustice, the minister said.

Protesting against the recently surfaced irregularities by in the NEET exam conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA), Delhi Congress workers on Friday held a demonstration near the BJP headquarters.

The demonstration was led by Delhi Congress president Devender Yadav.

he medical entrance examination, National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate) or NEET-UG, was conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on May 5 with around 24 lakh candidates taking part.

The results were announced on June 4.

The Election Commission on Friday said it has initiated preparations for forthcoming assembly elections in Haryana, Maharashtra and Jharkhand with updation of electoral rolls in these states.

July 1, 2024 will be the qualifying date.

For the just-held Lok Sabha polls, the voters list was updated with January 1 as the qualifying date.

(PTI Inputs)

Police on Friday detained Congress workers during party's protest in Chandigarh against the ongoing NEET-UG row.

While hearing a plea seeking cancellation of the NEET-UG 2024 exam held conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA), the Supreme Court of India has refused to defer the counselling process for NEET UG candidates. The Medical Counselling Committee is set to begin the process from July 6 onwards.

Light showers brought respite from the extreme heat in Delhi NCR. Parts of Delhi and Haryana witnessed light rainfall. As per the IMD, more rain showers have been predicted over the national capital region for the next few days.

With monsoon season approaching, IMD has issued a red alert for Karnataka, Coastal Karnataka, Konkan and Goa.

Along with these states, a red alert has also been issued for Kerala and Mahe. These regions are expected to get isolated and heavy rainfall to extremely heavy rainfall over the next few days.

As the conflict between Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah grows, the group's chief has extended a warning to Cyprus. Hezbollah's chief Hassan Nasrallah has warned Cyprus that if it continues to provide a base for Israel to attack Lebanon, the European country will be dragged into the conflict. READ FULL STORY HERE

The Ministry of External Affairs has confirmed that a total of 98 Indians have died during the Hajj 2024 pilgrimage. However, the MEA Spokesperson added that these deaths were due to "natural causes".

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has arrived in New Delhi for her official state visit to India. PM Hasina will be in New Delhi till June 22.

Delhi High Court has stayed the bail order granted by Rouse Avenue Court. With this, Chief Minister and AAP Supremo Arvind Kejriwal will remain in Tihar Jail until a new order is pronounced.

Delhi's Water Minister and AAP leader announced an indefinite hunger strike on Friday. The Aam Aadmit Party has alleged that Haryana govt is not releasing Delhi's share of water.