'Will prejudice fair probe': Court rejects bail plea of 'S**** Deals' creator

A Delhi court on Sunday refused to grant bail to Aumkareshwar Thakur the creator of the derogatory Sulli Deals app saying that the investigation is at a very nascent stage and permitting bail at this juncture will prejudice a fair investigationThakur 25 a resident of Newyork City Township Indore was apprehended by the Delhi Police on January 8In its ruling the court said The accused had consciously used Top Browser so that his identity could not be disclosed and various complaints have been received against Sulli Deals App which are pending across IndiaIt further said that the investigation presently is a developing investigation and the accused has been arrested after great and timeconsuming efforts after following the MLAT processAs counsel appearing for Thakur argued that the bail cannot be denied merely on the sentiments of the community and accused has been put to media trial the court maintained that at this stage it cannot ignore the peculiar facts of the case which reflect upon the severity and the gravity of the alleged acts of the accusedFurther the misuse of the technology and the impact of the alleged acts on the larger section of society cannot be reduced to negligible when being compared to other offences with harsher punishments it saidThe derogatory mobile app had surfaced in July last year where photos of Muslim women were displayed without their consent for auctionThe Delhi Polices Cyber Crime Unit had registered an FIR under section 354A Sexual harassment and punishment for sexual harassment of the Indian Penal Code on July 8Apart from Sulli Deals another shocking incident of harassment and insulting women of the minority community on social media came to light on January 1 after a Delhibased woman journalist lodged a complaint with the Delhi Police stating that she was being targeted by some unidentified group of people on a mobile application this time named Bulli Bai yet again created on GitHub platformBulli Bai had a number of pictures of women including journalists social workers students and famous personalities accompanied by derogatory content The app listed hundreds of Muslim women for auctionHowever its creator Niraj Bishnoi was also arrested by the Delhi Police on January 6During his interrogation it emerged that he used to interact with various virtual identities on social media and used to engage in group discussionsIn July 2021 in one of the groups in which Bishnoi was a member another group member shared the details of the Sulli Deals That was the first time Bishnoi or other group members had heard about the Sullideals app on GitHub The said Twitter handle was backtracked and it was learnt that after the uproar the Twitter handle and other foot prints were erased from various social media platformsBishnoi disclosed details that the said Twitter handle belonged to a person who stays in Indore Based on technical analysis a Twitter handle in the name of accused Thakur was identified and on January 8 a team of IFSO Special Cell went to IndoreThakur was examined and his technical gadgets were subjected to preliminary analysis During investigation he was subjected to interrogation in which he confessed that he had created the Sulli Deal app on GitHub The access of GitHub was with all the members of the group He had shared the app on his Twitter account where the photos of the Muslim women were uploaded by the group membersThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever