BULLIBAI APP ACCUSED REMANDED IN MUMBAI TILL 10 JANUARY

A Mumbai court remanded an accused, Vishal Kumar, in the BulliBai App case to police custody till January 10, 2022. On January 3, 2021, Kumar was detained from Bangalore, and on January 4, 2021, produced before the Metropolitan Magistrate Court at Bandra.

The Cyber Cell of Mumbai Police sought a 10-day remand in this case to conduct a thorough investigation. The police informed that there were more accused in the case. The police also sought the court's permission to conduct search and seizure at Kumar's Bangalore residence.

The case came into light after details of approx. 100 prominent Muslim women were uploaded on the 'Bulli Bai' app allowing users to participate in an 'auction.' The app appeared on the open-source platform GitHub triggering anger. On January 1, 2022, the Cyber Cell Mumbai Police registered an FIR based on the complaints made by women who the app had targeted. 

The FIR was registered against certain Twitter handles and developers of Bulli Bai for offenses u/s 153A, 153B, 295A (insulting religious beliefs), 354D, 509, 500 of the Indian Penal Code, and Section 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of Information Technology Act. The arrested student was traced through his IP address of the Twitter accounts used to upload the pictures. Mumbai Police has also blocked a woman from Uttarakhand in regards to the case. The woman is most likely to be produced in Uttarakhand for transit remand before bringing to Mumbai.

Author: Papiha Ghoshal