Neeraj Bishnoi, the 20-year-old who was arrested from Assam as the main creator and conspirator behind the ‘Bulli Bai’ app, was denied bail by a Delhi Court on Friday.
“The act of the accused is apparently an affront to the dignity of the women of a particular community and communal harmony of the society,” the court said.
The court further observed, “The facts disclose that accused created the app ‘Bulli Bai’ where women journalists and celebrities of a particular community, who are famous on social media, are targeted and they are projected in a bad light with an objective to insult and humiliate them by objectification.”
“A vilification campaign against these women containing derogatory content and offending material having communal overtones was run on this app made by the accused,” the court added.
On January 1, nearly 112 Muslim women found themselves listed on an online auction app, including actor Shabana Azmi, journalists such as Ismat Ara, Arfa Khanum Sherwani, Fatima Khan and Kashmir-based Quratulain Rehbar, author Saba Naqvi, poet Nabiya Khan, RJ Sayema, Pakistani Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai, activist Khalida Parveen, and several other women Muslim activists who frequently voice their opinions on social media.
The app, hosted on GitHub, put up pictures of the Muslim women and their Twitter handles as part of a fake ‘online auction’ along with the caption ‘Bulli of the day’. Six months prior to this, in July last year, nearly 80 Muslim women were listed “for sale” on a similar fake online auction known as ‘Sulli Deals‘, which was also hosted on GitHub.
Complaints were registered and on January 3, the Mumbai Police Cyber Cell detained and arrested 18-year-old Shweta Singh from Uttarakhand and 21-year-old Vishal Kumar Jha from Bangalore in connection with the case. This was followed by the arrest of 21-year-old Mayank Rawat from Uttarakhand by the Delhi Police Special Cell’s Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) unit a day later. Lastly, on January 6, Bishnoi was arrested as the prime accused and sent to police custody for seven days.
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On Friday, the court denied bail to Bishnoi on the grounds that the investigation in the case is at an initial stage and the police are still in the process of collecting evidence and identifying the involvement of other persons in this disdainful act. Considering the enormity of the allegations and the stage of the investigation, bail could not be grated, the court added.
Meanwhile, Singh and Jha were remanded to judicial custody for 14 days on Friday by a Mumbai court and both applied for bail soon after. Singh alleged that she was slapped during interrogation and the court has asked the police to investigate the allegation.
Earlier this week, Jha had tested positive for Covid-19 and on Friday, the court was informed that Rawat has tested positive as well.