GitHub accused likely behind earlier ‘auction’ website too, say police

A day after Delhi Police arrested the engineering student from Assam for allegedly creating a website where Muslim women were put up for auction, senior officers  told The Indian Express that he had created at least five Twitter handles in the last eight months, including one to allegedly “propagate” information that a Muslim man was the culprit in a similar case six months ago.

In July, when 50-80 Muslim women were targeted on the website hosted on US-based software platform GitHub, several tweets were circulated suggesting that a man named ‘Javed Alam’ had created it.

On Friday, senior police officers from the Special Cell told The Indian Express that the accused, Niraj Bishnoi (21), was allegedly among those propagating this falsehood, and that he was “likely behind” the previous case as well.

“Investigation has revealed that he made over five Twitter handles and was actively spreading misinformation about the case since July, tweeting that a man named Javed Alam created the app. We have recovered the code script of the current website, which suggests he created it in November. We suspect he has a larger role in the previous case too and are looking for the code script from deleted files. His laptop is being analysed,” said the officer.

A team led by ACP Raman Lamba had arrested Bishnoi from Assam’s Jorhat district on Thursday. The team found that he had created several Twitter accounts under the name ‘Giyu’ — an anime character.

DCP (Cyber Cell) KPS Malhotra said, “The account @giyu007 came to light when the earlier case was under investigation. He also created a profile posing as a female reporter and called up an investigating officer, trying to get details of the case. Further, he made contact with various news reporters and tried to plant misinformation with nefarious goals.”

Apart from the GitHub case, too, Bishnoi allegedly has a history of targeting women online, police said. One of his Twitter handles, @giyu2002, was allegedly used to harass a senior Congress leader, and an FIR based on her complaint was filed in May last year in Kishangarh.

“In that case, he had made lewd remarks on the picture of the complainant and had also tweeted about ‘auctioning’ her,” said DCP Malhotra.

The Indian Express accessed the FIR filed in connection with that case, which reads: “On 13th May 2021, a Twitter handle… started an auction on me on Twitter. He quoted my tweet and said, ‘I invoke… to auction this [expletive] … Minimum bid $1 USD. Bidding starts now. All the best to players’. After that, a number of people started bidding on me. The Twitter handle used my photo without my permission… he basically sold me off to another user and they continued making lewd comments in the replies.”

Police said he allegedly created another Twitter handle, @giyu44, on January 3 this year to mock and “demean” the Mumbai Police, which has made three arrests in connection with the case, and also “confessed” to making the app while posing as a Nepalese national.

“The account was created with a specific agenda to demean the arrests made by Mumbai Police and to throw an ‘open challenge’ to law enforcement agencies to nab him. In this, he tried to show his identity from Nepal,” added DCP Malhotra.

On Wednesday, @giyu44 had tweeted that the Mumbai Police had arrested “innocents”. “I am the person who created the app,” he tweeted. In a series of tweets, he asked the Mumbai Police to “publicly apologise for arresting two innocents and defaming them”. “I will personally surrender if someone arranges for my travel by flight,” he tweeted.

In their application seeking remand, police have stated: “The accused created this app using Proton VPN so that his identity couldn’t be disclosed. He also used a burner phone number… which is of Poland.”