Mumbai: An engineering student from Bengaluru, and a woman from Uttarakhand are under Mumbai Police Custody in connection with Bulli Bai App case.
The Cybercrime wing on January 3 had announced detention of the engineering student. However, his arrest was recorded at noon on Tuesday, 4 January. As per sources, contrary to what was circulated on social media, the accused from Bengaluru is not a Muslim. His name is Vishal Jha.
Jha was brought to Mumbai yesterday and is now being questioned. Along with Jha, the woman from Uttarakhand is being questioned too. Police said the arrested youth is a co-accused in the matter and was in touch with the prime accused.
As per the sources the woman involved is the main accused, as she was handling at least three accounts related to the Bulli Bai app.
Both the co-accused were social media friends, a Mumbai police officer said. “They were friends on Facebook and Instagram. The links are now established,” the officer said.
Vishal Kumar, had tried to mislead users by assuming non-Hindu identities, the police said. He had opened an account by the name, “Khalsa Supremist”. “On 31 December he changed the names of other accounts to mirror Sikh names,” the officer said.
Police have said the app has no connection to Sikhs but the accused allegedly made it look as if it was linked to Khalistani groups.
Several Opposition leaders, including Congress’ Rahul Gandhi and Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi had spoken out on the issue, urging the government to crack down on the platform and bring those behind it to justice.
The whole matter was surfaced on January 1, when several Muslim women found themselves on ‘auction’ on the vile app. The app hosted by the GitHub platform had used their photographs, many of them doctored.
The targets included women vocal on burning political and social issues, spanning age groups. Prominent journalists, activists and lawyers were among those listed for ‘auction’ in the disgusting app.
This app is similar with ‘Sulli Deals.’ Sulli deals had triggered a major controversy last year. ‘Sulli’ – an insulting term used by right-wing trolls for Muslim women. That too was hosted by GitHub.
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