Citing the lack of his direct involvement, a Mumbai court has discharged a 25-year-old man arrested in the 2022 Bulli Bai app case in which photos of over 100 Muslim women were displayed for an ‘auction’.
This is the first official discharge in the cybercrime investigation in this case.
The Bulli Bai app followed the Sulli Deals app, which had similarly displayed photographs of about 80 Muslim women in 2021.
The judicial magistrate at Bandra, RT Ingle, passed the order discharging Vishal Sudhirkumar Jha in the Bulli Bai case on Tuesday, October 6, the Bar and Bench said. Jha, an engineering student then, was also the first to be arrested in the case.
‘No evidence that he created the app’
Apart from noting the lack of direct involvement, the magistrate also ruled that being in contact with co-accused does not establish liability for their criminal acts.
The judge observed that the applicant may have been associated with the Bulli Bai app because he knew and was in contact with the co-accused. However, the chargesheet contained no material to suggest that he created the app or assisted the co-accused in developing it.
Jha and two other accused had secured bail on April 12 after the court observed that the older co-accused had abused their immaturity.
Jha was booked under Sections 153(a) (promoting enmity between different groups), 153(b) (imputations prejudicial to national integration), 295(a) (deliberate acts intended to outrage religious feelings) of the then IPC and Section 67 of the Information Technology Act (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form).
Jha’s advocate had argued that Jha’s only alleged action was following the app. He also said that the investigating officer could not produce proof that Jha shared the application on his Twitter account, as claimed.
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