B.Tech. student, the creator of 'Bulli Bai' app, held from Assam

New Delhi, January 6, 2022

A second-year engineering student, who is said to be the main conspirator and creator of the "Bulli Bai" app on GitHub and its main Twitter account holder, Neeraj Bishnoi, has been arrested by IFSO (Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations unit) of the Special Cell of Delhi Police.

Bishnoi was held from Assam by a team of IFSO led by Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) K. P. S. Malhotra.

Bishnoi is a resident of the Jorhat village of Assam. He is a second year B.Tech. (Computer Science) student of the Vellore Institute of Technology, Bhopal.

Bishnoi was brought to Delhi from Assam by a flight this afternoon.

The Mumbai Police has already arrested three persons, including an 18-year-old girl Shweta Singh, 21-year-old Mayank Rawat, a DU student and one engineering student Vishal Kumar Jha.

The arrests by the Mumbai Police were made from Bengaluru and Uttrakhand. Vishal Jha and Mayank are on police remand while the police custody of Shweta ended on January 5.

What was the 'Bulli Bai' controversy?

On January 1, this app posted the photographs of a number of women of a particular religion. These included journalists, social workers, students and famous personalities. It happened six months after the controversy of Sulli Deals.

Vishal Kumar Jha, the engineering student, was one of the followers of Bulli Bai, which led the police to him.

Hosting platform Github provided space to Sulli Deals, and Bulli Bai too was created on the same platform. Later on after the controversy erupted, Github removed the user Bulli Bai from its platform. But by then Bulli Bai had sparked a nationwide controversy.

The Bulli Bai app was also being promoted by a Twitter handle with the name @bullibai, with the display picture of a Khalistani supporter.

This Twitter handle was endorsing the Bulli Bai app saying "women can be booked from the app". This handle was also promoting Khalistani content at the same time.

Shiv Sena leader and Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi wrote to the Mumbai Police after which the case was lodged. A case in this connection was also lodged by the Delhi Police.

No arrest made in 'Sulli Deal' case

Last year, when Sulli Deal app appeared, two FIRs were lodged against unknown persons. However, the culprits behind this were never arrested.

IANS