Bulli Bai app case: Main accused posed as woman journalist to spy on probe

Neeraj Bishnoi, the mastermind of the Bulli Bai app, posed as a woman journalist to interact with investigators to stay updated on the case, the police said on Friday. The 21-year-old engineering student also got in touch with journalists on social media to collect information, claiming that he knew the people behind the app where Muslim women were "auctioned".

As per the Delhi police that arrested Bishnoi from Assam on Thursday, Bishnoi created a fake profile of a girl on social media and communicated with the investigating agency as a news reporter. "He also spoke to multiple reporters and lured them to share details of the case by claiming that he knew the people behind this app and tried to plant misinformation with his nefarious goals," said KPS Malhotra, DCP of Delhi police's special cell.

Vishal Kumar Jha, another accused, was earlier arrested by the Mumbai police from Bengaluru

As reported by mid-day first, the people arrested by the Mumbai cyber cell are apparently behind the Sulli Deals app as well. Sources said the city cops found that the Twitter account of Bengaluru engineering student and accused Vishal Kumar Jha was linked with Sulli Deals and had begun digging deeper about that case. However, before they could take Bishnoi into custody, the Delhi police arrested him as one FIR over the Bulli Bai case has been registered by them.

The cops have found multiple accounts and one of them had surfaced during the investigation into the Sulli Deals app case as well. "The account @giyu007 came into light, when the Sulli Deals case was under investigation. Through this handle, he had tried to plant some information regarding the possible propagator/originator of Sulli Deals app," said Malhotra.

While the Delhi cops snatched away Bishnoi from their Mumbai counterparts, the complainants in the case say they did nothing on complaints against the Sulli Deals apps last year.

Sources in the Delhi police have confirmed that the same set of people including Bishnoi and others arrested by Mumbai cops are behind the Sulli Deals app as well. They said Bishnoi had created various handles with the initial name of ‘giyu', which is a gaming character. The police have so far found details of accounts @giyu2002, @giyu007, @giyuu84, @giyu94, @giyu44 from Bishnoi and he has confessed to creating them to target Muslim women.

Delhi police said while they were investigating the Sulli Deals case, Bishnoi called on the WhatsApp number of an investigator posing as a journalist. "He called to get basic details of the case like a normal journalist would do but later said that he had information about the Sulli Deals case. He in fact, shared some details about a person named Javed, but we didn't find anything against him," an officer from Delhi police's special cell said.

Bishnoi started planting stories among journalists. "The reporters tried to verify the information with the special cell. As we didn't confirm the details, the reporters in Delhi didn't carry the story," the officer added. Bishnoi was using accused Shweta's account.

"The account @giyu2002 has been found associated with one FIR registered in PS-Kishangarh, South West Delhi. In this case, from this Twitter account, he had made lewd remarks on the picture of the complainant and even had tweeted about the auction of the same," said DCP Malhotra.

The Delhi cops have found that @giyu44 was created by Bishnoi on January 3 to mock the Mumbai police and openly challenge law enforcement agencies to nab him. He had tried to depict himself as someone from Nepal.
Meanwhile, a team of city cops are in Assam and questioning some more people associated with Bishnoi.

100
No. of Muslims targeted through the app

July
Month in 2021 when the Sulli Deals app had surfaced