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In a major breakthrough in the 'Bulli Bai' case, Mumbai police arrested Vishal Kumar Jha, a 21-year-old man from Bengaluru on Tuesday, 4 January. The Mumbai Police had on 3 January detained the Bengaluru resident. His arrest was confirmed a day later.
On the same day, the police also detained an 18-year-old woman from Uttarakhand, identified as Shweta Singh. She has now been arrested by Mumbai Police.
Mumbai Police have detained another Uttarakhand resident, Mayank Rawat, on 5 January.
The Delhi Police on Thursday, 6 January, arrested Niraj Bishnoi, a 21-year-old man from Assam, who is allegedly the mastermind behind the 'Bulli Bai' app, taking the total number of arrests in the case to four.
On 'Bulli Bai', an app on GitHub, photos of hundreds of Muslim women were taken from their social media profiles without their consent and they were 'actioned off' as 'Bulli Bai of the day'. The matter came to light on 1 January, after several of these women opened up about the same on social media platforms.
Addressing a press conference on the case, the Mumbai Police on 5 January said that the intention behind creating the app was to "circulate it on a large scare to hurt sentiments of certain communities".
Vishal is a third semester or second year student of civil engineering in the Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering, Bengaluru. On 3 January, Vishal was attending classes when the Mumbai Police personnel came looking for him. He was called from the class and handed over to the police. He was arrested after hours of questioning.
Vishal was allegedly running one of the Twitter handles that was used to upload links to the websites. Police claim Vishal and Shweta knew each other through social media.
Mumbai Commissioner of Police Hemant Nagarale said that once the probe began, the Mumbai Police first analysed the 'Bulli Bai' app on GitHub. It had only five followers. He added that both the app and the Twitter handle were named 'Bulli Bai', which helped the police personnel to nab the suspects.
According to the investigating team, Vishal had tried to mislead users by assuming non-Hindu identities.
Vishal was produced before the Bandra court in Mumbai on 4 January. The court sent the 21-year-old to police custody till 10 January and granted permission to search his Bengaluru residence.
Despite a criminal case involving abuse and being charged under various sections of the IPC, Vishal will neither face internal probe nor punitive measure in Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering where he studies.
In most educational institutions, internal probes are mandatory when students get embroiled in criminal cases.
Speaking to The Quint, a college management representative said on the condition of anonymity, "He is a young student and we have to think about his career too. It is not yet clear whether he is guilty. We are not planning any action as of now."
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