Bulli Bai app case: Delhi cops win chase to arrest ‘mastermind’

The Delhi police arrested the creator of the ‘Bulli Bai' app from Assam on Thursday, just days after their counterparts in Mumbai apprehended three other accused in the case. The app, hosted on GitHub, was used to target prominent Muslim women, by listing their names and photos for auction.

The Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Ops (IFSO) unit of Delhi police's special cell picked up Niraj Bishnoi, 20, from his house in Jorhat district of Assam. Sources said Mumbai police were just an hour away when he was taken into custody. "The main conspirator and creator of the Bulli Bai app on GitHub and the holder of the Bulli Bai Twitter account has been arrested from Assam," said KPS Malhotra, DCP special cell, Delhi police.

‘Recovered all evidence'

"In Delhi, we have already registered an offence in the Bulli Bai app case and have been investigating since January 1. Bishnoi is the mastermind, and the creator of the app and the Bulli Bai Twitter account. We have recovered all the evidence from his mobile and laptop, along with details of women whose pictures were posted on the app," he added. Mumbai police, who acted on the case in less than 24 hours, had also established the links to Bishnoi.

"Our team also reached Assam on Thursday. But before we could reach the exact location, the Delhi police took him in their custody, and we were just one hour away from him then," a senior officer of Mumbai Crime Branch said. They will seek Bishnoi's custody to bring their probe to a logical end.

A face-off?

Bishnoi's arrest could spark a fresh face-off between the two police forces. On Twitter, some praised Delhi police for nabbing the mastermind, while others criticised the force for taking action only after the Mumbai Crime Branch cracked the case. The Mumbai police's action has come as an embarrassment for Delhi police, as multiple victims have claimed that they were targeted in a similar manner last year on Sulli Deals app. They said that an FIR was filed with the Delhi police, but they did nothing in that case.

Delhi police claimed that their arrest was not a follow up of Mumbai cyber cell's action. "We were collecting details of Twitter users who were just propagators. We also got Bishnoi's details, but he was very tech savvy and was using all tactics to hide his real identity and location. He was using a virtual private network, because of which we were getting different international locations, like the Netherlands, Germany and Japan," an officer of Delhi police's special cell told mid-day.

Clarity expected on Sulli Deals

Another officer from Delhi police said they also suspect that this group was also behind Sulli Deals. "Now that we have got Bishnoi's custody, we will soon get more clarity on Sulli Deals case as well." According to IFSO, Bishnoi is a second year B.Tech student at Vellore Institute of Technology in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. On Thursday, the Mumbai police's cyber cell also summoned a Palghar-based dentist who was in touch with the three accused arrested earlier.

Conspirator ‘has confessed': Delhi cops

After Mumbai police arrested the three accused from Bengaluru and Uttarakhand, Twitter user @giyu44 on Wednesday responded to Minister of State (Home) Satej Patil's tweet, saying, "You have arrested the wrong person, slumbai police. I am the creator of #BulliBaiApp. Got nothing to do with the two innocents whom u arrested, release them asap mf."

In their statement on Thursday evening, the Delhi police said that Niraj Bishnoi confessed that he had twe-eted from @giyu44. "During interrogation, Bishnoi disclosed that he created the Bulli Bai app, and also created @bullibai_ and other Twitter handles. The app was developed in November 2021 and finally updated in December 2021. The Twitter account was created on December 31. He disclosed that he had created one more Twitter account, @Sage0x1, for tweeting about the app," they added.

3
No. of accused in the case arrested by the Mumbai police