The Catch Up: 26 April

This is the Catch Up on 3 Things for the Indian Express and I'm Flora Swain.
It’s the 26th of April and here are the top stories of the week.

In the second phase of Lok Sabha elections today, voting took place in 89 seats across 12 states and UTs. By day's end, one-third of the total 543 Lok Sabha seats, including all seats in Kerala, Rajasthan, Manipur, and Tripura, and 14 of the 28 seats in Karnataka, had completed polling. In Outer Manipur, 13 Assembly segments participated in the second phase, while the remaining 15 had voted in the first phase alongside the Inner Manipur seat. Among the 89 seats, 9 are reserved for Scheduled Castes and 7 for Scheduled Tribes.

A day after the chairman of Indian Overseas Congress Sam Pitroda was on the receiving end over his comments on the US inheritance tax, he issued a clarification on Wednesday saying that his statements were twisted. He added that the comments had nothing to do with the Congress party or their manifesto for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. The comments, however, faced the backlash of the BJP with their spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla saying that the “Congress wants to grab one's hard earned tax paid resources' '.

On Tuesday, a Delhi court extended the judicial custody of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) legislator K Kavitha till 7th of May in the money-laundering case related to the excise policy. Meanwhile, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi elections scheduled to be held today were postponed as the presiding officer was yet to be nominated. This comes after LG VK Saxena wrote to the municipal commissioner, saying that he does not “deem it appropriate to exercise his power as Administrator to appoint the Presiding Officer in absence of inputs from the Chief Minister.

The National Investigation Agency on Thursday said they have arrested a man, a resident of the UK, in connection with the violence at the Indian High Commission in London during a protest on March 22 last year. The NIA spokesperson said that the accused, identified as Inderpal Singh Gaba, a resident of Hounslow, UK, has been arrested for carrying out unlawful activities during the protests. The probe revealed that the incidents in London on March 19 and 22 were part of a larger conspiracy to unleash vicious attacks on the Indian missions and its officials.

D Gukesh, the 17-year-old from Chennai became the youngest ever winner of the prestigious Candidates tournament in Toronto on Monday. This also made him the youngest ever to compete at the World Chess Championship. All India Chess Federation (AICF) secretary Dev Patel on Thursday said the country will bid for the hosting rights of this year’s much-anticipated World Championship clash between Gukesh and defending champion Ding Liren of China.

This was the Catch-Up on the 3 Things by The Indian Express.