Delhi court rejects bail plea of ‘Bulli Bai’ app creator Niraj Bishnoi

Additional sessions judge Dharmender Rana dismissed the bail plea of Niraj Bishnoi and said, “Considering the nature of the crime, the seriousness of allegations and nascent stage of the investigation, I do not find any merits in the application at hand and the same is accordingly dismissed.”

The court noted that in the case at hand, around 100 women journalists of a particular community have been targeted by the accused persons, to be abused and insulted on a public platform.

“The act is certainly going to have an adverse impact upon the communal harmony of a society wherein woman has been deified since time immemorial and any attempt to scornfully objectify them is certainly going to invite vehement resistance from the community at large,” said the court.

“The act of the applicant accused cannot be countenanced by any civilized society and the modus operandi of the alleged offence suggests meticulous planning and deft execution,” stated the court.

The court also noted that the sardonic conduct of the applicant/accused Bishnoi in targeting women journalists of a particular community, using offensive monikers with derogatory communal overtones, on a social platform is not only an offence against the essence of womanhood but also an act designed to enrage passion cause ill will amongst communities and disturb communal harmony.

The court observed that the allegations against the applicant/accused are serious in nature.

“The investigation is at a nascent stage. I do not find any merits in the application at hand, ” said the court in its order dated January 29.

The Delhi Police on Tuesday opposed the bail plea of Niraj Bishnoi, the alleged creator of the Bulli Bai app, saying that the investigation is at a very nascent stage.

Public Prosecutor Advocate Irfan Ahmed appearing for Delhi Police submitted that the contents on his Twitter handles were derogatory, accused with others were using words like “Suli” and “Buli” against the girls of a particular community.

Advocate Irfan Ahmed also submitted that the accused used his Twitter handle to target women of a particular community. Only one victim has turned up by now and there are many others who are yet to be found out.

Advocate L Ojha appearing for Niraj Bishnoi submitted, “I was arrested as a suspect. It’s a bailable offence but during disclosure, sections of the IT Act was slapped on me. The Twitter handle which was used in the offence of committing the crime, my client have not used any derogatory language.” He also submits that section 153A also invoked in FIR, it says about communal harmony. The complaint is by an individual and there is no group or community.

Bishnoi, a 21-year-old engineering student, who is said to be the main conspirator and creator of the Bulli Bai app on GitHub and the main Twitter account holder of the app, was arrested by Delhi Police Special Cell’s Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations unit (IFSO) from Assam’s Jorhat on January 5, 2022.

Earlier, the Magistrate court had dismissed the bail petition of Niraj Bishnoi stating 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.

Delhi Police had earlier said that during interrogation, Niraj Bishnoi disclosed that the app was developed in November 2021 and updated on December 21 and he had 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 year.

An engineering student from Bengaluru, a young girl from Uttarakhand, and one of her friends have also been arrested by Mumbai Police in connection with the ‘Bulli Bai’ app case.