Another accused and applicant, Neeraj Bishnoi, had to withdraw his application due to technical reasons.
The case has its genesis in an app ‘Bulli bai’ which appeared on open source platform GitHub.
The app put out details of more than 100 prominent Muslim women allowing users to participate in an ‘auction’ of those women.
It triggered an outrage and based on complaints by women who had been targeted by the app, the cyber cell of Mumbai police registered a first information report (FIR) on January 1, 2022.
The prosecution claimed that the app had been hosted on GitHub by accused Neeraj Bishnoi.
It was also discovered that Bishnoi relied upon the source code of ‘Sulli deals’ an app created earlier by Omkareshwar Thakur in order to make another app ‘Bulli Deala’
On December 31, 2021, the app link had been shared by the accused on their respective twitter handles as per instructions of Bishnoi.
The Cyber Cell alleged that the accused targeted a majority of Muslim women who were particularly active on social media.
The Court had earlier denied rejected the bail plea filed by the accused before the filing of the chargesheet.
Subsequently, the Mumbai Police had filed a 917-page chargesheet. The accused had then approached the Court seeking bail.
They submitted that they were innocent and not connected with the alleged acts.
They contended that since the investigation was over, the charge-sheet filed and no serious offence was made out against them they should be released on bail considering their tender age. They also undertook to abide by all the bail conditions.
Source: Barandbench
