Bulli Bai App Case: Delhi Court Sends Prime Accused Neeraj Bishnoi To 7 Days Police Custody

A Delhi Court yesterday sent Neeraj Bishnoi, a 21 year old arrested from Assam, to 7 days police custody in Bulli Bai App case. Bishnoi is alleged to be the main conspirator and creator of the Bulli Bai App on GitHub.

Bishnoi is a resident of Assam's Jorhat area and is a student pursuing B. Tech from Vellore Institute of Technology, Bhopal.

He was produced by the Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations unit (IFSO) unit yesterday at the Magistrate's house at night.

The Bulli Bai App is similar to the 'Sulli Deals' which also resulted in a controversy last year by offering 'sullis', a derogatory word trolls would use for Muslim women. GitHub was also the host for that App.

Importantly, the Court of Metropolitan Magistrate in Mumbai's Bandra had earlier remanded Vishal Jha, another 21-year-old engineering student arrested in the Bulli Bai App case, in Mumbai cyber police's custody till January 10, 2022.

The FIR was registered against relevant handles and the developer of Bulli Bai for offences under Sections 153A (promoting enmity on grounds of religion etc), 153B (imputations prejudicial to nationallyntegration), 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.

The case came to the fore after innumerable prominent Muslim women found themselves up for auction on the App hosted by GitHub. Many women found that their doctored images were put up on the App for "auction."

The women included prominent journalists, social activists and lawyers.

According to an NDTV report, the lady was handling three accounts in the Bulli Bai App. Jha opened an account called Khalsa Supremacist, apparently to make it look like this was a Khalistani attack. Then, on December 31, he changed the names of the accounts to make them sound like they allegedly belonged to a particular community.