Bulli Bai App Case: Mumbai Police Seeks Further Custody Of Accused Vishal Jha

Jha, an engineering student in Bangalore, was arrested on January 4 in the case. He and two others are booked under sections 154(A), 153(B), 295(A), 509, 500 and 354(D) of IPC and Section 67 of the IT Act.

The case pertains to several politically vocal Muslim women being advertised for an online auction.

The police said that Jha was placed in medical judicial custody earlier this week after he tested positive for Covid-19. However, since parts of their investigation are still incomplete, his custody should be handed over to them after his Covid quarantine is over.

The Magistrate adjourned the hearing on the custody application as well as Jha's bail application for Friday, after being informed that even the investigating officer had tested positive for the virus.

Jha, represented by Advocates Aarti and Shivam Deshmukh opposed Mumbai Police's plea in a written reply. According to the reply, once he was remanded in judicial custody, by consent, the police's plea for further custody became infructuous.

"It is pertinent to note that the present application is preferred to seek custody of Respondent/ accused for attainment of OTP of the seized devices, although the same cannot be a ground for seek custody remand once he is already remanded to judicial custody," the reply said.

According to the reply, Jha surrendered on January 4, and was remanded in Mumbai cyber police's custody till January 10. He was sent in judicial custody on January 10th. Thus, the police had sufficient time to interrogate him.

"Computer equipment and social media account created by him, proton mail related investigation is yet to be done. For that investigation, his mobile phone, internet, fake social media account passwords and OTP, his presence is necessary. Therefore grant police custody after his quarantine is over," Mumbai police's plea read.

The FIR was registered against necessary Twitter handles and the developer of Bulli Bai. The offences are Sections 153A (promoting enmity on grounds of religion etc), 153B (imputations prejudicial to national-integration), 295A (insulting religious beliefs), 354D (stalking), 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman), 500 (criminal defamation) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of Information Technology Act.

In his bail application Jha alleged false implication. Distancing himself from the allegations, Jha claimed that it was not the police's case that he was using any of the twitter handles @bullibai, @ Sageox11, @hmmachaniceoki, @jattkhalsa7 and @wannabesigmaf. Nor was it alleged that he created the app.

While he was accused of using the twitter account @khalsa, it was not the police's case that the account was used to malign the complainant or anyone else's image.

Jha said in his plea that the police had already seized one laptop, mobile phone and 2 sim cards from him, so the question of tampering with the evidence does not arise.

Moreover, since he did not know the other accused, there was no meeting of minds, he alleged.

Lastly, Jha has said that he did not have any criminal antecedents and the offences against him were punishable with less than 3 years imprisonment, therefore, he was entitled to bail.

The case will now be heard tomorrow.