Influencer Bobby Kataria Arrested Over Human Trafficking Charges

Social media influencer Balwant Kataria alias Bobby Kataria was arrested on Monday for allegedly human trafficking of two Uttar Pradesh youths, police said.

The case has been registered against Kataria under section 370 of the IPC at the Bajghera Police Station Gurugram, police said.

The complainants, Arun Kumar, a resident of Fatehpur in Uttar Pradesh and Manish Tomar, a resident of Hapur, said that they were unemployed. They were in touch with Kataria via Instagram.

The complainants told the police that on Bobby's YouTube channel MBK, they saw an advertisement about abroad-based job. Following this they called Bobby Kataria on on his WhatsApp. Bobby called them to meet his office in Sector 109 on the pretext of getting them a job in a foreign country.

The complainant then met Kataria in his office on 1 February 2024 and paid Rs 2,000 for registration.

After this, on the request of Bobby Kataria, on February 13, Rs 50,000 was transferred to his official account which was registered in the name of MBK Global Visa Private Limited.

Thereafter, on Bobby's instruction on March 14, another amount of Rs 1 lakh was transferred to the account of a person named Ankit Shaukeen. Kataria sent the tickets of Vientiane (Laos) through Shaukeen's WhatsApp.

On March 28, as per the instructions of Bobby Kataria, Kumar got Rs 50,000 converted into USD at the airport and boarded the flight to Vientiane.

Similarly, lakhs of rupees were taken from his friend Manish Tomar on the pretext of sending him to Singapore, but he was also made to board a flight to Vientiane.

When both of them landed at Vientiane airport, they met a young man named Abhi, who described himself as a friend of Bobby Kataria and a Pakistani agent.

He dropped them off at the Hotel Mican Son in Vientiane, where they found a young man named Ankit Shaukeen and Nitish Sharma alias Rocky. They took the victims to an anonymous Chinese company. There both the friends were severely beaten and their passports were snatched.

At the same time, they were forced to commit cyber fraud against US citizens. Both of them were threatened that if the work was not done as per their instructions then they would not be able to return to India and they would be killed there.

"About 150 Indians including women were brought into that company through human trafficking by brokers like Bobby Kataria on the pretext of jobs. Somehow, we escaped from there and reached the Indian Embassy and came back to India and filed a police complaint against Kataria," the complainant told the police.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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Mamata Banerjee Posts Special Message For KKR After IPL 2024 Title Victory

Kolkata Knight Riders claimed their third IPL title after defeating Sunrisers Hyderabad on Sunday. KKR looked completely in control throughout the match as the Shreyas Iyer-led side registered a comprehensive eight-wicket victory in the IPL 2024 final. After the win, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee took to social media to post a special message. "Kolkata Knight Riders' win has brought about an air of celebration all across Bengal. I would like to personally congratulate the players, the support staff and the franchise for their record breaking performance in this season of the IPL. Wishing for more such enchanting victories in the years to come!," she posted on X (formerly Twitter).

Kolkata Knight Riders' win has brought about an air of celebration all across Bengal.

I would like to personally congratulate the players, the support staff and the franchise for their record breaking performance in this season of the IPL.

Wishing for more such enchanting…

— Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) May 26, 2024

Coming to the match, KKR produced a sensational bowling performance to bundle out SRH for 113 as Andre Russell took three wickets while Vaibhav Arora and Mitchell Starc took two.

Bowling coach Bharat Arun opened up about the performance.

"It has been pretty tough the last two years, we didn't qualify and there has been introspection and we worked on areas which needed to be worked on. [on Rana] He has been outstanding and it's about the bowler understanding what his strengths are and when he does, it comes out beautifully on the ground. Mitch coming into the team boosted the confidence of the other youngsters."

"He has been one of the best bowlers in world cricket and he has been in such situations before, it's about understanding Indian conditions and once he did that, it is magic all over. They have been outstanding, spinners mature with age, both bowling in tandem has worked exceptionally for us. He has brought a totally different dimension to our batting this year and it was Gautam who insisted that Sunny open and what Sunny did was outstanding," Arun said after the match.

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Video: Welding Sparks May Have Caused Huge Fire At Gujarat Gaming Zone

A CCTV footage of the fire at a gaming site at Gujarat's Rajkot that has now emerged, shows the fire had started while welding. Twenty-eight people, nine of them children, were killed in the massive blaze that broke out on Saturday.

The footage shows the fire spreading from the sparks emitted during the welding.

Despite efforts to extinguish it, the fire spread.

A police case has been filed against six partners of the game zone that was operating without a license. Two persons -- the owner and the manager of the site -- have been arrested.

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Cyclone Remal Begins Landfall, To Continue For 4 Hours: 10 Points

1. The met department said, "The forward sector of wall cloud region is entering into land. The landfall process has commenced over coastal areas of Bangladesh and adjoining West Bengal. It will continue for next 4 hours". Wind speeds are expected to range between 110 and 120 km per hour and gusts can reach up to 135 kmph.
2. Coastal districts are expected to experience extremely heavy rainfall, while Kolkata and its surroundings may encounter heavy to very heavy rainfall.
3. Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting earlier this evening to check the preparedness for Cyclone Remal. He said the Centre has extended full support to the state and must continue to do so. More teams of security forces have been kept on standby, he said.Sixteen battalions each from the state disaster management and NDRF have already been deployed in the coastal areas,.
4. Air and rail traffic have already been shut ahead of the landfall as a precautionary measure. Kolkata airport authorities have suspended flight operations for 21 hours starting at noon today. The Eastern and South Eastern Railways have cancelled several trains.
5. A total of 394 flights - both international and domestic - will not operate during the flight suspension period, an Airports Authority of India (AAI) official said.
6. Kolkata and its adjoining districts have been receiving Intermittent showers and gusty winds since morning. Traffic has been thin on the roads.
7. Kolkata mayor Firhad Hakim convened a meeting with officials in the afternoon to assess preparedness for the impending cyclone. He added that approximately 15,000 civic employees have been mobilised to address post-cyclone scenarios.
8. The Bengal government has evacuated around 1.10 lakh people from coastal regions, including the Sundarbans and Sagar Island, to secure shelters.
9. Authorities in the coastal areas, especially in Digha, Shankarpur, and Tajpur, have issued advisories urging tourists to vacate hotels and refrain from venturing into the seas as a precautionary measure.
10. In Bangladesh, over 800,000 people from vulnerable areas have been evacuated to shelters on Sunday.
    
    (The Kolkata Police has also announced two helpline numbers - 9432610428 and 9432610429 - for citizens)

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Low Pressure System Over Bay Of Bengal Intensifies Into Cyclonic Storm

A low-pressure system over the Bay of Bengal has intensified into cyclonic storm 'Remal' and is expected to make landfall between West Bengal's Sagar Island and Bangladesh's Khepupara at midnight on Sunday, the IMD said.

This is the first cyclone in the Bay of Bengal this pre-monsoon season.

The deep depression over the east-central Bay of Bengal intensified into a cyclonic storm 'Remal' and was centred approximately 360 km south-southeast of Khepupara and 350 km south-southeast of Sagar Island, according to an update issued by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) at 7:50 pm on Saturday.

The storm is likely to intensify further into a severe cyclonic storm by Sunday morning and is expected to cross the West Bengal and adjoining Bangladesh coasts between Sagar Island and Khepupara with wind speeds of 110 to 120 km/hr, gusting to 135 km/hr around midnight on Sunday, the IMD said.

The Met Office has warned of extremely heavy rainfall in the coastal districts of West Bengal and north Odisha on May 26-27. Parts of northeast India may also experience extremely heavy precipitation on May 27-28.

A storm surge of up to 1.5 meters is expected to inundate low-lying areas of coastal West Bengal and Bangladesh at the time of landfall.

The weather office advised fishermen not to venture into the sea in the north Bay of Bengal until the morning of May 27.

A red alert was issued for the coastal districts of South and North 24 Parganas in West Bengal for May 26-27, where extremely heavy rain is expected in some areas.

An orange alert is in place for Kolkata, Howrah, Nadia, and Purba Medinipur districts, warning of wind speeds of 80 to 90 km/hr, gusting to 100 km/hr, and heavy to very heavy rainfall at some places on May 26-27.

In north Odisha, the coastal districts of Balasore, Bhadrak, and Kendrapara will receive heavy rains on May 26-27, while heavy precipitation is likely in Mayurbhanj on May 27.

The IMD has warned of localised flooding and significant damage to vulnerable structures, power and communication lines, kutcha roads, crops, and orchards in South and North 24 Parganas districts of West Bengal.

People in the affected areas have been advised to remain indoors. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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Fact Check: Painting Behind Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Not Of Jesus Christ

After Congress leader Rahul Gandhi shared a selfie of him and Sonia Gandhi having voted during the sixth phase of polling for the ongoing 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the photo was widely shared on social media.

The claim

Those sharing the photograph took a dig at Gandhi calling himself a 'janeudhari brahmin', (thread-wearing Brahmin), while claiming that he had a photo of Jesus Christ in his room, but none of Hindu Gods.

• Among those sharing this is X (formerly Twitter) user 'MrSinha_'.

But...?: The photo does not show Jesus.

• It is a painting titled 'Madonna Oriflamma' by Russian painter Nicholas Roerich, where the lady in the painting is holding a banner of peace.

How did the Quint find out the truth?: We noticed that the photo in the background showed a person holding a banner with three red dots, surrounded by a red circle.

• Using this description ('person holding red circle with three dots painting') as a search term led us to a 2017 blog post with the same image.
• It identified the image as a 1932 painting titled 'Madonna Oriflamma' by one Nikolai Roerich.
• It also mentioned that the geometrical art was Roerich's creation, which he called the 'Banner of peace', elaborating on the symbolism of the banner.
• We looked up the name of the painting and found it on several websites across the internet.
• One of the results included the painting's WikiArt page, last updated in 2013, which mentioned that the art was on display at the Nicholas Roerich Museum in New York.

• The museum's Facebook page also shared the painting's photograph in 2021, discussing its meaning and symbolism.
• Moreover, Roerich's website also carries a visual of the painting with details about its medium and dimensions, stating that it has been on loan to the museum since 1960.

Reproduced and printed versions of the painting are also easily available for purchase on the internet, as seen here, here, and here.

Conclusion: The painting seen in Rahul and Sonia Gandhi's photo is not one of Jesus Christ.

(This story was originally published by The Quint and republished by NDTV as part of the Shakti Collective.)

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Kate Middleton Will Not Appear In Public This Year: Report

Months after Princess of Wales Kate Middleton announced she had been diagnosed with cancer and was in the “early stages” of treatment, royal family sources revealed she might “not appear in public for the rest of the year.”

Kate is “surrounded” by her family as she undergoes preventive chemotherapy, The Daily Beast reported.

The Princess of Wales is expected to spend the next week at the country home on the Sandringham Estate with her family. Her parents would likely join them.

Over the next six weeks, Prince William will likely spend more time with his family. He was given time off after the British royal family noted they would be stepping back from a few engagements to avoid distracting from the upcoming general elections scheduled for July 4.

A source, quoted by the publication, said the Princess of Wales is not expected to be seen in any public-facing role in the medium term, adding to the possibility of her remaining absent from public life for the rest of 2024.

"Lots of people involved in planning need to know what the principals are doing a long way in advance. I am told that Kate's diary for this year is empty. There is nothing planned. She may not appear in public for the rest of the year," the source told the outlet.

So, how does the Royal Family plan to deal with the inevitable resurgence of conspiracy theories and speculations that her absence would trigger?

The source shared the possibility of another video message updating the country on her health can't be ruled out, adding it worked as an "effective way" to keep the conspiracy theorists at bay.

A friend of the royal couple, on the condition of anonymity, said that for now, the most crucial thing for Kate is to avoid stress and anxiety so she can move on with getting better. They will bail out and be off to Sandringham the moment school breaks up, the friend said.

The Princess of Wales prefers to confide in her family rather than her friends - most of whom are expected to attend the Duke of Westminster's wedding next month, the friend said, adding that she is surrounded by her parents, Carole and Michael, and her sister Pippa Middleton and brother James have "obviously been there for her as well."

"They are an incredibly tight family, and Catherine feels absolutely confident relying on them. They have been there for her for decades and never let her down," the source added.

According to reports, the Princess of Wales has not appeared in public in the last several months. On March 22, she announced her cancer diagnosis in a video statement.

In the video, she said initially her condition was believed to be non-cancerous. But she discovered the truth after a successful abdominal surgery in January as subsequent tests revealed cancer was present.

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