Arvind Kejriwal to be back in jail on Sunday as no relief from court after bail period ends
New Delhi, Jun 1: After 21 days of freedom, AAP convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will be back in the Tihar Jail on June 2 in the excise policy case as a city court Saturday reserved its order on his plea seeking interim bail on medical grounds.
A day before he surrenders before the jail authorities, Kejriwal held a meeting of the AAP's political affairs committee at his residence this morning. He later attended the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc meeting at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge's home.
Kejriwal was released from the jail on May 10 on interim bail granted by the Supreme Court for campaigning in the Lok Sabha polls.
Kejriwal said on Friday that he will leave around 3 pm on Sunday to surrender before the jail authorities.
The city court on Saturday reserved for June 5 its order on an application moved by Kejriwal seeking interim bail in the money laundering case linked to alleged excise policy scam.
The court observed that the plea was for interim bail on medical grounds and not for the extension of the interim bail granted by the Supreme Court.
Earlier, the Supreme Court registry on Wednesday refused an urgent listing of Kejriwal's plea seeking extension of his interim bail by seven days for undergoing the medical tests. He claimed loss of weight and high ketone level.
Kejriwal has asked people not to be sad if anything happens to him in jail or even if he loses his life. He also asserted he was proud of going to jail to save the country from "dictatorship", saying he did not know how long will he remain behind the bars this time.
He also appealed to the people of Delhi to pray for his elderly parents.
Meanwhile, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said the chief minister should stop his "illness drama" and go back to the jail if he has any respect for law.
It is regrettable to see Kejriwal campaigning after getting bail in a healthy condition and now claiming to be seriously ill and seeking bail on medical ground, he said.
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WHO declares global health emergency over Ebola outbreak in Congo, Uganda
Abuja (Nigeria) (AP): WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared the Ebola disease outbreak in Congo and Uganda a public health emergency of international concern on Sunday after more than 300 suspected cases and 88 deaths.
In a post on X, the World Health Organisation said the outbreak does not meet the criteria of a pandemic emergency like the COVID-19 pandemic, and advised against the closure of international borders.
Ebola is highly contagious and can be contracted via bodily fluids such as vomit, blood or semen. The disease it causes is rare, but severe and often fatal.
Health authorities have confirmed the current outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a rare variant of the Ebola disease that has no approved therapeutics or vaccines. Although more than 20 Ebola outbreaks have taken place in Congo and Uganda, this is only the third time the Bundibugyo virus has been reported.
Congo accounts for all except two of the cases, both of which were reported in neighbouring Uganda, the WHO said.
Officials first reported the spread of the disease in Congo's eastern province of Ituri, close to Uganda and South Sudan, on Friday. On Saturday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention reported 336 suspected cases and 87 deaths.
“There are significant uncertainties regarding the true number of infected persons and geographic spread associated with this event at the present time. In addition, there is limited understanding of the epidemiological links with known or suspected cases,” Tedros said.
Uganda on Saturday confirmed one case it said was imported from Congo, and said the patient died at a hospital in Uganda's capital, Kampala, and the WHO said that a second case has been reported in Kampala. The two cases had no apparent links to each other, and both patients had travelled from Congo, it added.
The Bundibugyo virus was first detected in Uganda's Bundibugyo district during a 2007-2008 outbreak that infected 149 people and killed 37 people. The second time was in 2012 in an outbreak in Isiro, Congo, where 57 cases and 29 deaths were reported.
WHO's emergency declaration is meant to spur donor agencies and countries into action. However, the global response to previous declarations has been mixed.
In 2024, when the WHO declared mpox outbreaks in Congo and elsewhere in Africa a global emergency, experts at the time said it did little to get supplies like diagnostic tests, medicines and vaccines to affected countries quickly.
