For Bulli Bai App, the Mumbai police arrest Vishal Jha, a 21-year-old Bengaluru student, and Uttarakhand 18-year-old Shweta Singh.<\/p>\n
Within two days of intense tracking, Mumbai Police managed to nab the real culprits behind the Bulli Bai App.\u00a0 The Sulli and Bulli Apps sparked a disturbance in a climate of hate.<\/a>\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n The cyber cell of Mumbai Police, which is probing the \u2018Bulli Bai\u2019 app case, has arrested an 18-year-old woman, alleged to be the main culprit, from Uttarakhand, and a 21-year-old engineering student from Bengaluru, officials said here on Tuesday.<\/p>\n The girl, 18, is said to be the ‘mastermind’ behind the ‘Bulli Bai’ app arrested from Rudrapur house in Udham Singh Nagar district in Uttarakhand by a Mumbai police team. Police said that Sweta Singh had just passed her 12th exams and was nabbed from her house in Adarsh Colony, Rudrapur. She was produced before a local court that in the evening put her on transit remand till January 5.<\/p>\n Vishal Kumar Jha, the student, and co-accused Shweta Singh, who is from Uttarakhand, allegedly knew each other. According to police, more arrests are likely.<\/p>\n While a court in Mumbai remanded Jha in police custody till January 10, a court in the northern state-granted city police four-day transit remand of Shweta Singh so that she could be brought here. She will be produced before the Mumbai court on Wednesday, said a senior police official.<\/p>\n The Mumbai Police had registered a First Information Report (FIR) against unidentified persons following complaints that doctored photographs of hundreds of Muslim women were uploaded for \u2018auction\u2019 on an app called \u2018Bulli Bai\u2019, hosted on the open-source software platform GitHub.<\/p>\n On the basis of information provided by sub-inspector Suyog Amritkar, the Mumbai police team, led by him plunged into hunt mode and arrested Sweta Singh with the help of local cops.<\/p>\n While there was no actual \u2018auction\u2019 or \u2018sale\u2019, the purpose of the app seemed to be to humiliate and intimidate the targeted women, many of whom are active social media users.<\/p>\n On studying the available information, they were able to deduce that Shweta Singh was operating multiple accounts related to the app.\u00a0 Vishal Jha, said the senior police official, was operating a Twitter handle by the name \u2018Khalsa Supremacist\u2019, and had changed the names of some other fake handles to resemble Sikh names.\u00a0 The sole objective was to defame Sikhs and Muslims, and link them to terrorist movements and create hatred between Sikhs and Muslims.<\/p>\n Some other Twitter handles which promoted the app also had pictures or caricatures of Turbaned persons in their profile pictures and the posts in question contained text in the Punjabi script, in an obvious endeavor to raise deception about the identity and mislead the public, an official had said earlier.<\/p>\n A team of the Mumbai cyber police arrested Shweta Singh in Uttarakhand. “An additional team of the IT cell, Mumbai police, arrived late night to take Sweta Singh to Mumbai,” said Mamta Bohra, SP (city), Rudrapur.<\/p>\n Engineering student Vishal Jha was arrested in Bengaluru in connection with the case on Monday and later brought to Mumbai.\u00a0 The Mumbai cyber police station has also registered a case against the app\u2019s unidentified developers and Twitter handles which promoted it.<\/p>\n The police will also probe whether there were any attempts to concoct religious tension in Punjab where elections are due this year, he said.<\/p>\n Mumbai police produced Vishal Kumar Jha before the Bandra metropolitan magistrate\u2019s court here on Tuesday and sought his custody for ten days.<\/p>\n The court remanded him in police custody till January 10.<\/p>\n It also granted the police permission to carry out searches at his house in Bengaluru.<\/p>\n While seeking his custody, the police told the court that after the suspect detained in Uttarakhand (Shweta Singh, later arrested) was brought here and her custody was obtained, the two accused would be questioned together.<\/p>\n \u201cMy client Vishal Jha has been falsely implicated in the case. He had no role in the creation of this app or any fake accounts. He is just a student,\u201d his lawyer Dinesh Prajapati told PTI.<\/p>\n Prajapati also denied that Jha knew Shweta.<\/p>\n The Bulli Bai app which is now blocked by GitHub is the second case of this kind of sexual harassment and cyber-bullying targeting women from the minority community.<\/p>\n A similar app and website called \u2018Sulli Deals\u2019 had come to light last year.<\/p>\n Amid national outrage, the Delhi Police has sought details from the GitHub platform about the developers of the \u2018Bulli Bai\u2019 mobile application and also asked Twitter to block and remove related \u201coffensive contents\u201d.<\/p>\n The police also sought from Twitter information about the account handler who first tweeted about the app.<\/p>\n Leaders from across the political spectrum condemned this cyber-harassment and called for strict action against the culprits.<\/p>\n Terming the matter as \u201cserious\u201d, the Delhi Minorities Commission has issued a notice to Delhi police chief Rakesh Asthana seeking an action-taken report by January 10.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Walse-Patil and Minister of State for Home Satej Patil said strict action will be taken against the culprits.<\/p>\n Satel Patil praised the \u201cprompt action\u201d by the Mumbai police, and said there seemed to be a \u201cmuch bigger network\u201d behind such coordinated crimes and the city police will unearth the \u201centire nexus that is enabling hate crimes against women in our country.\u201d PTI<\/p>\n Mamta Bohra, SP (city), Rudrapur said of Sweta Singh “She had completed her 12th this year and was currently preparing for engineering entrance exams. She got hooked on to social media platforms after she lost her father last year. She is 18 years old and surmised to be the mastermind behind the app.\u00a0 She knew\u00a0Vishal Jha who was an engineering student in Bengaluru.<\/p>\n Mumbai police had earlier arrested a 21-year-old engineering student, Vishal Jha, in connection with the case from Bengaluru. He was brought to Mumbai yesterday for questioning.<\/p>\n “She (Singh) is the youngest in her family, with two elder sisters and a brother who is the family’s breadwinner,” said Vikram Rathore, SHO at Rudrapur. Divulging more information, SP Bohra said, “Sweta was in touch with the Bengaluru man. She was connected with people behind the website for the past six months. They follow the same ideology that has led to this hate crime. She was continuously posting hate comments. Her handle on Twitter, which goes by ‘jattkhalsa07’, was involved in the crime of posting with wrong intentions objectionable photos of several celebrities and social media activists.<\/p>\n The silence of the right-wing politicians could almost endorse their approval of the vile app and acts.<\/p>\n The app targets Muslim women with a powerful political and social presence on Social Media, particularly Twitter, abuses and harasses them with doctored pictures and puts them up for “auction” online. ” The ‘Bulli Bai’ case has erupted six months after ‘Sulli Deals’ created a social media storm. Both the names are derogatory terms.<\/p>\n GitHub had provided space to Sulli Deals and this time, too, the offending app was created on the same site. After a national uproar, GitHub later removed the user from its hosting platform.<\/p>\n “The matter came to light on January 1 when several Muslim women found themselves being “auctioned” on the app hosted by GitHub. Many of the photographs of the women were doctored. The app was also being promoted by a Twitter handle with the name @bullibai, with the display picture of a Khalistani supporter. Many of the targets included women, of all ages, vocal on burning political and social issues. Prominent journalists, activists, and lawyers were among those who featured in the app.<\/p>\n Several opposition leaders, including Congress Party’s Rahul Gandhi strongly and asked for action.<\/p>\n Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi, has taken a personal pursuit on the matter ensuring action was taken has spoken out on the issue, urging the government to crack down on the platform and bring those behind it to justice.<\/p>\n Veteran screenwriter Javed Akhtar said he was “appalled” with everyone’s silence over the harassment of Muslim women. Mumbai police have registered a case under sections 153A (promoting disharmony), 153B (publishing wrong appeal), 295A (defiling place of worship), 509 (insult to modesty of women), 500 (defamation), and 453D (stalking) of the IPC and sections of the IT Act.<\/p>\n Bulli Bai app case: The targets included Muslim women<\/a> who had a powerful presence on Twitter, vocal on political and social issues.\u00a0 \u00a0An engineering student has been arrested in the Bulli Bai case in which Muslim women vocal on political social issues were put on an online ‘auction’. An 18-year-old woman, Shweta Singh, from Uttarakhand who is suspected to be the main accused in the case has also been detained by the police. The woman is also being questioned now. Police said the arrested youth is a co-accused in the matter and was in touch with the woman.<\/p>\n The matter came to light on January 1 as 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n #WATCH<\/a> 'Bulli Bai' app case accused Vishal Kumar produced before Mumbai's Bandra Court pic.twitter.com\/YhyAZjkLng<\/a><\/p>\n — ANI (@ANI) January 4, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\nPolice have said the app has no connection to Sikhs but the accused allegedly made it look as if it was linked to Khalistani groups.<\/strong><\/h3>\n
How the Mumbai Police worked swiftly<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Who are Sweta Singh and Vishal Jha<\/strong><\/h3>\n
What is Sulli Bulli App<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\nMumbai Police arrested Vishal Jha in Bengaluru. He was brought to Mumbai on Monday and is now being questioned. He has been sent to police custody till January 10.<\/p>\n\n