[Bulli Bai case] Police cannot seek custody for obtaining a One Time Password: Vishal Jha to Mumbai court

Vishal Sudhirkumar Jha, the first arrested in the Bulli Bai case, has opposed the application filed by Mumbai Police seeking his police custody after his COVID quarantine is over.

. According to Jha, the application seeking his police custody became infructuous after an order of judicial custody was passed by the court earlier.

His contention was that reviewing its own order was outside the ambit of the court.

"Once the accused is remanded to judicial custody by this Court, the reliefs sought by the applicant become infructuous," the reply stated.

Pertinently, in response to Mumbai Police's contention that Jha's custody would be required for obtaining a One Time Password (OTP) for investigating fake social media profiles, Jha said the same cannot be a ground to seek police custody.

. In the reply filed through his lawyers Aarti Deshmukh and Shivam Deshmukh, Jha claimed that he has always shown his willingness to cooperate with the probe, which is why he had surrendered on January 4, 2022.

He remained in police custody till January 10 which was sufficient for the agency to conduct the investigation, he stated.

. Jha was remanded to judicial custody on January 10, 2022, after the Court was informed that he had contracted COVID. He was in police custody until then.

The Mumbai Police had then filed a fresh application seeking police custody once Jha is out of quarantine period.

The application stated that after his "medical custody", he could remanded to police custody so that they could complete investigation on the electronic devices seized from him.

The application stated that the police may require a One-Time Password (OTP) from him and wanted to probe into the fake social media accounts and ProtonMail that may have been used for communication.

While granting time to Jha to respond to the application, Metropolitan Magistrate Komalsing Rajput observed in his order of January 10, that "the contents of the application and the practice followed by the Investigation Officer was not as per law."

In response to that plea, Jha has claimed in his reply that the Investigating Officer had conceded to Jha's judicial custody which had been recorded in the order.

After the said order, Jha moved for bail , and the agency was directed to file its response, it was pointed out.

Hence, the application by the Mumbai Police was frivolous in law and ought to be rejected, Jha contended.

. Meanwhile, the hearing in the bail plea filed by Jha got adjourned for Friday after the Police sought deferment of matter due to the Investigating Officer testing positive for COVID.

. The present case has its genesis in an app 'Bulli bai', which appeared on open-source platform GitHub putting 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 the Mumbai Police registered an FIR on January 1, 2022, against relevant Twitter handles and the developer of Bulli Bai for offences under the Indian Penal Code and the Information Technology Act.

[Bulli Bai case] Police cannot seek custody for obtaining a One Time Password: Vishal Jha to Mumbai court

Neha Joshi

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