Three students detained in connection with the ‘Bulli Bai’ app scandal, in which images of renowned Muslim women were put up online for “auction,” had their bail applications denied by a Mumbai court today.
Vishal Kumar Jha, Shweta Singh, and Mayank Rawat are the three defendants.
On January 5, the Mumbai Police’s cyber department detained Singh (18) and Rawat (21) in Uttarakhand, while Jha was nabbed in Bengaluru on January 4.
A metropolitan magistrate in Mumbai’s Bandra district denied them bail.
The police had previously opposed their release, stating that the accused adopted Sikh identities for their social media handles with the objective of disrupting society and causing religious enmity.
According to the authorities, all three defendants utilized various social media accounts, including Twitter, Instagram, and Gmail.
Many of the accounts were removed or suspended for publishing defamatory content, according to the cyber cell, and information on the matter has yet to be obtained.
Following reports from multiple women who had been targeted by the ‘Bulli Bai’ app, the Mumbai Police had filed an FIR on the issue. The app made the personal information of numerous Muslim women public, allowing others to bid on their “auction.”
Meanwhile, Niraj Bishnoi and Omkareshwar Thakur, who had been detained by the Delhi Police, were brought to Mumbai today on transit remand for questioning by the city police’s cyber squad.
Bishnoi was apprehended by the Delhi Police in a separate Bulli Bai app case, while Thakur was apprehended in the “Sulli” deals app case.
According to the authorities, the suspects detained in the Bulli Bai app case were also involved in the July 2021 “Sulli” trades case. The “Sulli” deals app sparked anger after it published the personal information of over 100 notable Muslim women, inviting people to bid on their “auction.”
Bishnoi and Thakur were arrested and put in police custody till January 27 by the Bandra magistrate court.