Mumbai Police Opposes Bail of Bulli Bai Accused, Cites Sulli Deals Involvement

The police told the court that Shweta Singh, Mayank Rawat, and Vishal Jha were also involved in Sulli Deals case.

Photos of hundreds of Muslim women were uploaded on an app named 'Bulli Bai' using GitHub.

(Photo: The Quint)

The Mumbai Police on Monday, 17 January, opposed the bail pleas of the three accused arrested in the 'Bulli Bai' app case, noting that the ongoing probe has suggested that Shweta Singh, Mayan Rawat, and Vishal Jha were also involved in the Sulli Deals case.

"Preliminary probe has revealed that apart from Bulli Bai app, the arrested accused were also active in the Sulli Deals app of July 2021, and further probe is required to be done with this regard," the Mumbai Police's affidavit stated, according to Bar and Bench.

On 1 January, photos of hundreds of Muslim women were uploaded on an app by the name of 'Bulli Bai' using GitHub. This came nearly six months after the 'Sulli Deals' controversy, wherein pictures of Muslim women were similarly misused.

Singh, Rawat, and Jha are presently under judicial custody. The first two had been sent to 14-day-judicial custody on 14 January.

The police said on Monday that the accused were "highly active on social media and were posting material which could cause a breach of peace in the society," news agency ANI reported. The police further argued that if the accused were released, they could abscond or tamper with the evidence of the case.

In the affidavit filed by the prosecution, the police noted that the accused had deceptively used Sikh names and Sikh words on their handles that had targetted Muslim women, in order to create communal tension.

The police said that the timely arrest of the accused had helped contain a law-and-order situation, Bar and Bench reported.

The matter was posted to Tuesday for further hearing.

Meanwhile, the bail plea of Bulli Bai 'mastermind' Niraj Bishnoi was denied by a Delhi court on 14 January, stating that the app had mounted a "vilification campaign" against prominent Muslim women.

(With inputs from ANI and Bar and Bench.)