A Mumbai magistrate’s court has discharged 25-year-old engineering student Vishal Sudhirkumar Jha in the Bulli Bai case, observing that there was no evidence linking him to the creation of the app or the sharing of photographs of Muslim women.
Jha was the first of six people arrested in connection with the case in 2022. The court found that the allegations against him were not supported by sufficient evidence to proceed with the trial.
Court Says Following App Was Not an Offence
The Bulli Bai app was launched on GitHub on January 1, 2022, and displayed photographs of more than 100 Muslim women, including journalists, along with derogatory comments and an alleged online auction format.
Jha, who was studying engineering at an institute in Bengaluru at the time, was arrested by Mumbai Police on January 4, 2022.
The prosecution alleged that Jha had followed and shared the Bulli Bai app and was in contact with some of the other accused.
However, Judicial Magistrate RT Ingle said the investigating officer could not establish that Jha had shared the app on his Twitter account.
“The only role, therefore, is that he (Jha) followed the Bulli Bai app,” the court said.
The magistrate also held that merely following the app did not constitute an offence under the Information Technology Act.
The court noted that there was no record showing that Jha had shared the app from his Twitter account after it was launched.
No Evidence Linking Jha to App Creation
The court also found no material showing that Jha had helped alleged app creator Niraj Bishnoi set up the platform or provided him with photographs of Muslim women.
While there was evidence that Jha had been in contact with some of the co accused, the court said that this alone did not establish his involvement in creating the app.
The prosecution had charged Jha under provisions relating to promoting enmity between groups, deliberate acts intended to outrage religious feelings, stalking, defamation and insulting the modesty of a woman. Provisions of the Information Technology Act were also invoked.
Bulli Bai Case
The Bulli Bai app triggered widespread outrage after photographs and names of prominent Muslim journalists, activists, artists and other women were uploaded on the platform as part of an alleged online auction.
No actual auction took place. The platform was instead used to harass and target the women whose photographs were displayed.
The case followed the Sulli Deals controversy of July 2021, when photographs of nearly 80 Muslim women were similarly placed on an online platform and described as being offered for sale.
Six people were arrested in the Bulli Bai case, with four arrests made by Mumbai Police and two by Delhi Police. All six were charge sheeted.
Following Jha’s discharge, five accused remain in the case and are facing trial. They are currently out on bail.
Another Accused Denied Discharge
The court’s decision in Jha’s case comes after it rejected the discharge plea of another accused, Mayank Rawat, in April.
In Rawat’s case, the court found prima facie material suggesting that he had downloaded photographs of Muslim women from their social media accounts and posted them on the Bulli Bai app.
