Pizza prove costly for influencer Andrew Tate as cops detain him after getting clues from pizza box
Bucharest: Andrew Tate, a divisive social media personality and former professional kickboxer, was detained in Romania late Thursday on charges of human trafficking and rape, according to local media reports.
Tate, a British-US citizen who previously was banned from various social media platforms for expressing misogynistic views and hate speech, was reportedly detained along with his brother Tristan in the Ilfov area north of Romania's capital, Bucharest.
Romania's anti-organised crime agency said in a statement late that four suspects, including two British citizens and two Romanians, were arrested on charges of being part of an organised crime group, human trafficking and rape.
The agency, DIICOT, said the British citizens recruited women who were subjected to "acts of physical violence and mental coercion," sexually exploited by group members and forced to perform in pornography intended to reap "important financial benefits."
The statement did not name the Tate brothers. Photographs published by Romanian media outlets pictured Tate being led away in handcuffs by masked law enforcement officers.
DIICOT said it identified six people who were sexually exploited by the organised criminal group, and that five homes were raided on Thursday. The suspects were detained for 24 hours.
Earlier this week, Tate posted a video on Twitter of a mountainous region of Romania, the Eastern European country where he is reported to have lived for the last five years.
Tate also was embroiled this week in a war of words with 19-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg after he shared a picture of himself standing next to a Bugatti on Twitter and bragged that he owned 33 cars.
Video footage from the police raid accompanying the anti-organised crime agency's statement shows several blurred-out sports cars, wads of cash, and a handgun.
On Wednesday, the British national was told to “get a life” by Thunberg on Twitter after he told her he owned 33 cars with "enormous emissions."
It all began when Tate, a self-described misogynist, bragged about owning “33 cars” and said he is happy to share details about the “enormous emissions” of his cars. Tagging Greta Thunberg, he asked for her email address.
Thunberg, 19, clapped back with a savage reply that became hugely viral. “Yes, please do enlighten me,” she tweeted in response, adding a made-up email address to mock Tate. The fake address ends with “get a life”.
The interaction did not end there. Tate, in turn, shared his response in a video. The two-minute clip has him speaking, wearing a robe and holding a cigar. At one point, he is seen collecting two pizza boxes from someone and placing them on the table.
The boxes, from Jerry’s Pizza – which has outlets in Romania – are suspected to have helped the Romanian authorities track down Andrew Tate, according to several reports.
The Romanian pizza chain appearing in Andrew Tate’s response video to Greta Thunberg was reportedly used as proof for Romanian authorities to confirm his presence in the country, leading to the arrest of him and his brother in a human trafficking probe pic.twitter.com/MD0cved7q5
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SC invalidates appointment of 25,753 teachers, other staff in West Bengal schools
New Delhi (PTI): In a major jolt to the West Bengal government, the Supreme Court on Thursday invalidated the appointment of 25,753 teachers and other staff in state-run and state-aided schools, and termed the entire selection process "vitiated and tainted".
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar upheld a Calcutta High Court verdict dated April 22, 2024, annulling the appointments and ordered the Trinamool Congress-led state government to initiate a fresh selection process to be concluded within three months.
"In our opinion, this is the case where the entire selection process is vitiated and tainted beyond resolution. Manipulations and frauds on a large scale, coupled with attempts to cover-up, have dented the selection process beyond repair.
"The credibility and legitimacy of selection are diluted, and accordingly, we have to keep it (order of the high court) with some modifications," the CJI said while pronouncing the verdict on as many as 127 petitions pertaining to the Calcutta High Court verdict.
The CJI also said the employees whose appointments have been annulled are not needed to return their salaries and other emoluments earned so far.
It, however, made relaxation for certain disabled employees on humanitarian grounds, saying they would remain in the job.
The bench fixed pleas, including the one filed by the West Bengal government challenging the high court direction for a CBI probe, for hearing on April 4.
The detailed judgement is awaited.
On February 10, the top court reserved its judgement on a batch of petitions in the matter and said that those who got jobs wrongly may be knocked out.
The top court commenced the final hearing on December 19 last year and heard the parties on January 15, 27 and February 10 before reserving its verdict on the politically-sensitive case.
Citing irregularities such as OMR sheet tampering and rank-jumping, the high court had invalidated the appointment of 25,753 teachers and non-teaching staff in state-run and state-aided schools in West Bengal.
On May 7 last year, the apex court stayed the high court's order over the appointments made by the state's School Service Commission (SSC).
The top court, however, permitted the CBI to continue with its probe into the matter.
The case stemmed from the alleged irregularities in the 2016 recruitment process conducted by the West Bengal SSC in which 23 lakh candidates appeared for 24,640 posts and a total of 25,753 appointment letters were issued.
The apex court had termed it a "systemic fraud".
The high court instructed those appointed outside the officially available 24,640 vacancies, those recruited after the expiry of the official date, and those who submitted blank OMR sheets but obtained appointments to return all the remunerations and benefits received by them with 12 per cent per interest.
Former West Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee and Trinamool Congress MLAs Manik Bhattacharya and Jiban Krishna Saha are among the accused being probed in the recruitment scam.
