The detainment of a 21-year-old student from Bengaluru in connection with the ‘Bulli Bai’ app case on Monday, January 3 is a major breakthrough and is leading investigators to others involved, Maharashtra Minister of State (Home) Satej Patil told TNM in an exclusive interview. Patil said that the investigation was solely carried out by the Mumbai Cyber Police, who have identified a gang of people who operated together to post and ‘auction’ pictures of Muslim women on the ‘Bulli Bai’ app.
The Maharashtra Minister, while choosing not to reveal more details of the operation at this point so the investigation is not jeopardised, said that the 21-year-old Bengaluru student has been detained and is yet to be formally arrested. “We believe he was one of the people behind the app. Others detained are from other parts of India. It was not a joint investigation, it was solely carried out by the Mumbai Cyber police,” Patil said. He added that the police have sufficient proof to believe that the college student and others were enlisted by someone else. “They were used by someone else to target these women, we want to expose them. We will look into whether they belong to any organisation, party etc,” he said.
The Minister also said that the arrest will be recorded only by January 4 evening or January 5. “Unless we get more details, we cannot reveal things because the case becomes weak in court then. We will officially arrest only after the evidence is collated. Right now the police are still putting together proof. The conclusive picture will be clear only after this,” he added.
The Mumbai police are looking to make arrests of people who were involved and Patil said that they are being careful not to reveal anything at this time, so as to not alert people who were operating with the Bengaluru student. “There is a gang operation behind this. By this evening, there will be a press conference where more details will be made public,” Patil said.
The Maharashtra government had on Sunday asked the Mumbai Cyber Police to investigate into cases where pictures of Muslim women were being posted and ‘auctioned’ online, and had also asked Twitter to take down such posts. The Mumbai police registered an FIR against developers of 'Bulli Bai' app and Twitter handles that promoted the application under sections 354-D (stalking of women), 500 (Punishment for defamation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and other sections of the Information Technology Act. On Monday, the Mumbai police made the first detention in the case, that of a 21-year-old student from Bengaluru who is currently being interrogated.
“I can assure you 100% that we have gotten a breakthrough. There is no doubt about who we have detained and whether the people we are investigating are behind this. There is no suspicion of their involvement, it is certain,” the Minister said.
The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) had issued a notice to Delhi police chief Rakesh Asthana seeking an action-taken report by January 10. Patil said that since cases were initially reported from Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, the police there should have taken the initiative to inquire and crack down on the perpetrators. “More cases would not have taken place if the Delhi police had taken action. The police there too have very strong cyber crime teams. Delhi has the best cyber crime department in the country,” Satej Patil said.