While granting bail to three accused who were arrested by Mumbai Police on charges of sexual harassment, defamation, spreading enmity between groups and criminal conspiracy in the Bulli Bai app case, the Mumbai sessions court said, “The trial has not commenced and would take a considerable time, till then, I do not find that any fruitful purpose would be served by keeping the accused in such prolonged incarceration.”
Additional sessions judge AB Sharma had granted bail to Niraj Singh, Niraj Bishnoi and Aumkareshwar Thakur on June 21. The detailed order has been made available now which said, “Considering the peculiar facts and circumstances of the case and age of the accused, the court thought it fit to grant the accused bail after six months of incarceration.”
The court also noted that “It appears that the investigation is completed and a chargesheet has been filed. The offence is based upon the electronic evidence which has already been collected by the investigating agency.”
The accused were arrested in January 2022 and since then have been behind the bar.
The court also noted that “The document produced on record goes to show that 4 other FIRs came to be filed against the accused having similar allegations in different states. It is further seen that the accused has been granted bail by the Patiala House Courts, New Delhi. It is further seen that 3 accused persons are already released on bail. Whatever evidence relied by the prosecution regarding the alleged involvement of the accused has already been collected, under such circumstances, the investigating agency does not require their continuous custody.”
In Bishnoi’s case, the court said, “The accused has been behind bar for more than 6 months. He is a student and aged about 20 years. It is seen that he is already suspended by his college and under such circumstances, his long detention would spoil his educational career.”
In Thakur and Singh’s cases, the court said that the accused were behind the bar for more than 6 months and that they are aged about 26 and 28 years respectively and also stated that the offence is triable by the Magistrate's Court.
BULLI BAI APP CASE
Hundreds of Muslim women were listed for “auction” on the Bulli Bai app with photographs sourced without permission and doctored. The app appeared to be a clone of "Sulli Deals", which triggered a similar row earlier.
The police, in its chargesheet filed in March, had claimed Niraj Bishnoi asked a co-accused to send photographs of 100 "famous non-BJP Muslim women" in order to put them up for auction.
The chargesheet also said Bishnoi was the first to share the link of the Bulli Bai app on his Twitter group and members of the group were fully aware that it would be used to target Muslim women.
While there was no actual auction or sale, the purpose of the app seemed to be to humiliate and intimidate the targeted women, many of whom are active social media users.
On January 1, 2022, the Cyber police station of the West Region had registered an FIR against relevant Twitter handles and the developer of ‘Bulli Bai’ for offenses under Sections 153A (promoting enmity on grounds of religion etc), 153B (imputations prejudicial to national integration), 295A (insulting religious beliefs), 354D (stalking), 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman), 500 (criminal defamation) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of Information Technology Act.