Bulli Bai App Case : Mumbai Sessions Court Grants Bail To Neeraj Bishnoi, Alleged App Creator & 2 Others

Additional Sessions Judge AB Sharma granted bail in the case registered by Cyber Police Mumbai on execution of a personal bond of Rs. 50,000 and one or two sureties of the like amount.

Earlier the court granted bail to science students Shweta Singh (18) and Mayank Rawat (21), who hail from Uttarakhand and Vishal Jha (21) a resident of Bangalore.

According to the police Aumkareshwar Thakur had provided the source code for the application, Neeraj Bishnoi was the creator of the Bulli Bai application and Neeraj Singh allegedly circulated pictures.

The Mumbai police took all the three accused into custody in January 2022. They were earlier arrested in cases registered at Delhi and Hyderabad and have been granted bail in those cases as well.

The FIR against them was registered earlier this month against necessary Twitter handles and the developer of Bulli Bai. The offences are Sections 153A (promoting enmity on grounds of religion etc), 153B (imputations prejudicial to national-integration), 295A (insulting religious beliefs), 354D (stalking), 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman), 500 (criminal defamation) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of Information Technology Act.

Advocate Shivam Deshmukh for Thakur submitted that the offences are trailable by the magistrates court and his client wasn't charged with a heinous offence, accused Shweta Singh whose role was far graver was granted bail. Moreover, there wasn't any evidence against him of providing the source code.

Advocate representing the other accused also said that the case was triable by the sessions court and therefore they must be granted bail.

While accepting that the offences they were charged with were not heinous, Special Public Prosecutor Vaibhav Bagade contended that the repercussions of granting bail to the three accused couldn't be ignored. Moreover, the accused intended to create a rift between two religions.

The judge then granted bail to the accused, however a detailed copy of the judgement is yet to be made available.