[Bulli Bai] Niraj Bishnoi bail plea rejected by Delhi court

The Court stated that the act of the accused is an affront to the dignity of women of a particular community and communal harmony of the society.
[Bulli Bai] Niraj Bishnoi bail plea rejected by Delhi court
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A Delhi court has rejected the bail application filed by Niraj Bishnoi, one of the prime accused in the Bulli Bai App case.

Judge Pankaj Sharma denied the bail application, stating the act of the accused is "apparently an affront to the dignity of women of particular community and communal harmony of the society."

The Court noted that a vilification campaign against women, containing derogatory content and offensive material with communal overtones was run on the app made by the accused.

"Facts disclose accused created app where women journalists, celebrities of particular community, famous on social media are targeted, projected in a bad light with an objective to insult & humiliate," the order stated.

The counsel for the complainant had submitted that photographs of some prominent Muslim women were picked for the purpose of insulting and outraging their modesty by making sexually coloured remarks.

The Court after taking into account the enormity of the allegation rejected the bail plea.

"Accordingly considering the enormity of allegation and the stage of investigation no ground is made out for grant of bail at this stage bail denied," the order said.

Bishnoi is a resident of the Digambar area of Jorhat district in Assam and is a B Tech student at the Vellore Institute of Technology, Bhopal.

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 Mumbai Police and Delhi Police registered separate first information reports.

The Delhi Police registered an FIR against unidentified persons for offences under Sections 153A (promoting enmity on grounds of religion etc), 153B (imputations prejudicial to national-integration), 354A (sexual harassment) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

It later arrested Bishnoi from Assam.

The Mumbai Police has so far made three arrests - Vishal Jha, Mayank Rawat and Shweta Singh.

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