'Bulli Bai' app case: Delhi court rejects anticipatory bail to Vishal Jha

The Patiala House Courts Session Court rejected the anticipatory bail petition of Vishal Sudhir Kumar Jha in relation to the Bulli Bai app case and said that the allegation against the applicant Vishal Sudhirkumar Jha is grave in nature as it is a direct onslaught upon the dignity and modesty of the woman of a particular communityAdditional Session Judge Dharmender Rana while passing the order in the case said I concur with the Additional Public Prosecutor that to unravel the obscure and undetected aspects of the crime sustained custodial interrogation of the applicant is desirable Considering the totality of circumstances I do not find any merit in the application at hand and the same is accordingly dismissedThe court observed that the accused Niraj Bishnoi in cahoots with the applicant Vishal and other coaccused persons has developed the scandalous Bulli Bai app The conduct of the accused persons in the case is against the ever cherished constitutional ethos of secularism and fraternity ensuring the dignity of any individual and modesty of a woman Vishal Sudhirkumar Jha in anticipatory bail plea submitted that he is a resident of Bihar and an engineering student He is presently staying in a hostel in KarnatakaThe plea submitted that the applicant has been falsely implicated in the present case as he has nothing to do with the alleged offence It is submitted that the applicant has no role to play in the creation of the alleged app and even if for the sake of arguments it is presumed that the applicant was following the Bulli Bai app then this in no manner constitutes an offenceThe plea further submitted that the present applicant himself surrendered before the office of Cyber Crime BKC Western Division Mumbai on January 4 but on January 10 he tested positive and subsequently he was remanded to judicial custody on January 10 It is further submitted that all his electronic devices ie his mobile phone laptop and two sim cards are already in possession of the investigating agency and hence there are no chances of the applicant tampering with the evidence It is submitted that the applicant is apprehending his arrest in the present case thus moving his anticipatory bail petitionEarlier the court had rejected the bail plea of Bulli Bai app creator Niraj Bishnoi and said that a vilification campaign against women containing derogatory content and offending material having communal overtones was run on this App being made by the accused The magistrate Court earlier also noted that the facts disclose that the accused created the app Bulli Bai where women journalists and celebrities of a particular community who are famous on social media were targeted and they are projected in a bad light with an objective to insult and humiliate them by objectificationNiraj Bishnoi was arrested recently by the Delhi Police Special Cells Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations unit IFSO team from Assam for the alleged involvement in the Bulli Bai case Niraj Bishnoi 20 is a resident of the Digambar area of Assams Jorhat He is a BTech student of the Vellore Institute of Technology BhopalDelhi Police had said that during interrogation Niraj Bishnoi disclosed that the app was developed in Nov 2021 and updated in Dec21 and he had said that he created one more Twitter account to talk about the app Several complaints were received by police stations in the country regarding the listing of Muslim women for auction on the Bulli Bai mobile application with photographs sourced without permission and doctored It has happened for the second time in less than a year The app appeared to be a clone of Sulli Deals which triggered a similar row last yearThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever