'Operation over in 12 hours': Assam Police on arrest of accused in 'Bulli Bai' case

Guwahati, January 6

The Assam Police located the fourth accused in the “Bulli Bai” case, arrested from Jorhat, on Wednesday evening within hours of information being shared by the Delhi Police, a senior officer said.

Niraj Bishnoi, 21, is the “main conspirator” in the case and was arrested on Thursday morning for his alleged involvement in the app that has listed hundreds of Muslim women for “auction”, the police said.

“Delhi Police have been coordinating with us over the matter. Their team reached here on Wednesday morning and by evening, we had located the accused,” the officer of Assam Police told PTI.

“The operation was over in about 12 hours here,” he added.

The Mumbai Police, which is also probing the case, did not contact the police in Jorhat regarding the accused, the officer said.

Bishnoi, a resident of Jorhat who studies in Bhopal, is also the creator of the “Bulli Bai” app on GitHub as well as the main Twitter account holder of “Bulli Bai”, the police said. He was arrested by the Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) unit of the Delhi Police.

He was taken to Delhi from Jorhat in the afternoon for further investigation.

The cyber cell of Mumbai Police has made three arrests—a 19-year-old woman, alleged to be the main culprit, from Uttarakhand, a 21-year-old engineering student from Bengaluru and another 21-year-old, also from Uttarakhand.

Hundreds of Muslim women were listed for auction on the “Bulli Bai” mobile application with photographs sourced without permission and doctored. The app appeared to be a clone of “Sulli Deals” which triggered a similar row last year.

On Saturday, Delhi Police registered an FIR against unknown persons for allegedly uploading a doctored picture of a woman journalist on a website. The journalist had lodged a complaint and shared a copy on Twitter. —PTI