Youngest accused Shweta Singh’s family says she suffers from debilitating illness and is incapable of being behind such a huge hate campaign
Shweta Singh, 18, was arrested from Uttarakhand in the Bulli Bai app case (right) Vishal Kumar Jha, another accused
The investigation by the Mumbai police in the Bulli Bai app case and the subsequent action by their Delhi peers has led to the arrest of four men and an 18-year-old woman, Shweta Singh. But her family insists Singh has been framed. They say she has serious health issues and it is not possible for her to be an active player in a hate campaign of such magnitude.
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Shweta’s elder sister Manisha, 21, told mid-day that she did not know that the police would arrest her. “The cops reached my doorstep and told us that she is being taken for questioning. But later they arrested her… the police have no piece of evidence against my sister…she is being falsely implicated in a case which is turning out to be very big and we cannot afford to bear the legal expenses,” said Manisha.
“Mumbai police have been saying that all the accused arrested in the case are engineers but my sister has just passed 12th and she has studied biology. She is inclined towards rich Indian history and wanted to study Archaeology at Banaras Hindu University. How is she an engineer? Why is this fake propaganda being spread against my sister?”
A police source said Jha barely spoke to his parents (middle) the mastermind Neeraj Bishnoiwas arrested from Assam (right) Aumkareshwar Thakur is a BCA student from MP
Manisha, who too is a student, said her sister is under medication for a health condition that gives her ‘blurry or double vision’. “She is suffering from keratoconus and is undergoing treatment in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. We have all the relevant documents to prove it. She is not at all screen-slave. How can she do all this online bullying when she can’t stick to the screen for a long time? Above all, she does not have a laptop,” Manisha said.
“The medicines for her eye disorder makes her drowsy most of the time. She is bad in health…how can an unhealthy person think of doing such a despicable act? My sister is innocent,” she added. Shweta lost her father due to Covid 19 last May and her mother in 2011. “After the death of our father, she has become completely shy… she is an introvert,” Manisha said. She said she learnt from the police that her sister and Jha were in touch over social media.
“My sister is not a Muslim hater… indeed, when my father died, people from all castes, creed and community including Muslims helped us… she is an innocent soul, why will she hate Muslim women?” Manisha said, adding that they are being trolled online. “We are orphans… we have not discussed the matter with most of the relatives in our village because they won’t understand what the case is.”
Over 100 Muslim women were targeted through Bulli Bai application in the New Year, triggering a huge outburst. As the probe gathered steam, it became clear that the same set of people were behind the Sulli Deals application that had launched an online assault on prominent Muslim women in the same fashion last year. All the accused are between 18 and 26 years of age.
The Bulli Bai case began unravelling after the Mumbai cybercops arrested Vishal Kumar Jha, a 21-year-old engineering student, from Bengaluru last week. Jha led them to his friend Shweta Singh in Uttarakhand. The city cops then took into custody Mayank Rawat, 21, from the same state. At the same time, the Delhi police stepped on the gas and arrested the mastermind, Neeraj Bishnoi, 20, from Jorhat in Assam. On Sunday, they arrested the fifth accused Aumkareshwar Thakur, 26, from Madhya Pradesh. Thakur is the main suspect behind the creation of both the derogatory applications.
Jha is a second year civil engineering student of Dayanand Sagar College of Engineering in Bengaluru. His father Sudhir Kumar Jha is a railway ticket collector. “My son has been falsely implicated for the reason best known to them. He is an innocent soul and will come out clean very soon. He is a very obedient son,” said the father. Asked if his son has been rusticated from the college, Sudhir said, “I have spoken to the principal who told me not to worry about it.”
Sources said Jha barely spoke to his parents and would spend most of his time on his laptop, which has now been seized. Rawat is the son of an Army officer and is a student of Zakir Hussain College in Delhi University. Mastermind Bishnoi, is a computer science engineering student at VIT, Bhopal. His father is a businessman. The Delhi police have found 153 porn videos from his laptop. A native of Rajasthan, he is addicted to porn and has an unusual sexual craving for Muslim women who are above his age, said an officer from Delhi police.
Bishnoi told Delhi police that he had chosen the Gurmukhi script for the app as he felt it would be more impactful than the Devanagari script. He has also tried to harm himself twice and is threatening to commit suicide.
The latest catch
Thakur, who was arrested on Sunday, has done his BCA from IPS Academy, Indore. So far, he has said that he was a member of a ‘trad’ group on Twitter where the idea to troll and defame Muslim women was shared. He had developed the code on GitHub. Sources said all the members of the group had access to the GitHub account. While Thakur shared the app on his Twitter account, the women’s photos were uploaded by the group members.
“He had joined a group on Twitter by the name of Tradmahasabha in January 2020 using the Twitter handle @gangescion. During various group discussions, the members had discussed about trolling Muslim community women. He had developed the code/app on GitHub. After the uproar regarding the Sulli Deals app, he had deleted all his social media footprints. Further interrogation is underway. Further analysis of the technical gadgets is underway to find out the codes/images related to the Sulli Deals app,” said a Delhi police officer.
Five
No. of people arrested in the case till date
153
No. of porn videos seized from Bishnoi
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