21-year-old engineering student Neeraj Bishnoi, who is said to be the main conspirator and creator of the Bulli Bai app on GitHub and the main Twitter account holder of the app, was arrested by the Delhi Police last night from Assam’s Jorhat district. ,
Neeraj Bishnoi hails from Digambar Chowk area of Jorhat city and is a B.Tech Computer Science 2nd year student at Vellore Institute of Technology, Bhopal.
Shopkeeper Neeraj’s father Dashrath Bishnoi told that around 11 pm on Wednesday night, a three-member team of Delhi Police reached his house along with Jorhat Police and inquired about his son.
“We have two daughters and a son. Neeraj is the youngest. Yesterday the police team came to our house and inquired about Neeraj. The team spent about 45 minutes searching our house. Before leaving, they took my son. and confiscated his laptop and a mobile phone, which belonged to my wife. My son used to use the device,” Neeraj’s father said.
He claimed that his son was innocent and that he could do no wrong.
“Neeraj told us that he was not involved in any wrongdoing. He also told the Delhi Police team that he was innocent and that someone must have used his photograph. My son passed from St. Mary’s School with 86 per cent marks Passed class 10 exam. He also got a laptop from the state government. Our financial condition was not so good and we could not buy a computer for our son,” said Neeraj’s father.
He was busy with the computer most of the time till 11 pm every day. Neeraj got admission in Vellore Institute of Technology, Bhopal in 2019 but he was appearing for his classes from home. He hardly spoke to others. He was busy only with his studies. He secured 82 per cent marks in the 12th examination. No friend of Neeraj had come to the house during our stay. He was always glued to his laptop.”
On 27 November 2021, Neeraj went to Rajasthan to attend a family wedding and returned to Jorhat on 25 December.
Earlier this week, Mumbai Police arrested three others – Vishal Kumar, a 21-year-old engineering student in the southern city of Bangalore, and two other students, Shweta Singh, 18, and Mayank Rawat, 21, in the northern state of Uttarakhand. . ,
A GitHub spokesperson said the company had suspended a user account on the app for “everyone found to be in violation of our policies.”
Mumbai Police Commissioner Hemant Nagrale told BBC Marathi: “Our investigation is at a premature stage, so we can’t say right now whether “Bully Bye” and “Sully Deal” are linked.
In both cases, there was no actual sale, but it was intended to demean and humiliate Muslim women – many of whom have been vocal about the rising tide of Hindu nationalism under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“Sulli” is a derogatory Hindi slang term used by right-wing Hindu trolls for Muslim women, and “bully” is also derogatory.
Maharashtra State Junior Home Minister Satej Patel said, “Some more people have been detained for questioning. We will investigate the matter till its logical end.”
The list of women on the app includes several journalists, a Bollywood actor and the 65-year-old mother of a missing Indian student.
The fake auction left people stunned after several women shared screenshots and messages on social media.
Qurtulain Rahbar, a Kashmiri journalist who reported on the website “Sulli Deals” last year, said it was disgusting to have the name on the app this time.
How does Bulli Bai app work?
The ‘Bully By’ app on open-source platform GitHub was used to upload photos of hundreds of Muslim women without their consent for a virtual ‘auction’. The app caused massive outrage in India.
How Delhi Police caught Neeraj Bishnoi?
A woman lodged a complaint at the Cyber Police Station in South-East Delhi after the news of the Bulli Bai app surfaced. She alleged that her picture was uploaded by the Twitter handle @bullibai_ and others. Accordingly an FIR was registered.
Twitter suspended the accounts involved in the case and the controversial app was pulled from GitHub.
Technical assistance was provided to Delhi Police for the investigation.
The raw data was analyzed with the help of the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) and it was found that the prime suspect was located in Jorhat, Assam.
A police team was formed under the supervision of Assistant Commissioner of Police Raman Lamba to nab and nab the prime suspect.
Police raided in Jorhat, Assam and arrested Neeraj Bishnoi on Thursday. During questioning, he revealed that he had created the controversial app on GitHub. Additionally, he admitted to creating the Twitter handle @bullibai_ among others.
Neeraj Bishnoi told police that the GitHub app was developed in November 2021 and was finally updated the following month. The Twitter account was created on December 31st. He added that he has also created an account @Sage0x1 to tweet about the app.
He said that he was constantly monitoring the updates on social media. When the police started investigating the matter, he created another Twitter account (@giyu44) and tweeted, “You have arrested the wrong person, Mumbai Police.”