A Delhi court on Friday, January 14, dismissed the bail application of 'Bulli Bai' app creator Neeraj Bishnoi, noting that the vilification campaign against Muslim women containing derogatory content and offending material having communal overtones was run on this app. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Pankaj Sharma refused the relief, saying Bishnoi's act was an “affront to the dignity of the women” of the Muslim community and communal harmony of the society.
"The facts disclose that the accused created the app 'Bulli Bai' where women journalists and celebrities of a particular community who are famous on social media are targeted and they are projected in a bad light with an objective to insult and humiliate them by objectification," the court noted. A vilification campaign against these women containing derogatory content and offending material having communal overtones was run on this app made by the accused, it noted.
Twenty-year-old Bishnoi told the court that he was falsely accused, and had nothing to do with the offence. The counsel for the complainant opposed the bail application, saying the photographs of some prominent Muslim women were picked for the purpose of insulting and outraging their modesty by making sexually coloured remarks. The app put out details of more than 100 prominent Muslim women, allowing users to participate in an 'auction' of those women.
Last week, Bishnoi, who was arrested by the IFSO (Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations unit) of the Special Cell of Delhi Police, had been sent to seven days' custody. He was a second-year BTech student, studying computer science, at Vellore Institute of Technology, Bhopal. He is a resident of Digambar in Assam’s Jorhat district.
An engineering student from Bengaluru, a young woman from Uttarakhand, and one of her friends have also been arrested by Mumbai Police in connection with the case.