Maharashtra Minister Satej Patil on Wednesday, January 5, responded to Uttarakhand DGP’s statement that the 18-year-old woman arrested in the Bulli Deals case ‘got involved in the case for money,’ saying that all claims will be probed by the Mumbai police. “If the DGP says she got involved for money, we will probe that and find out who paid her too,” he told TNM.
A day after 18-year-old Shweta Singh was arrested, Uttarakhand DGP Ashok Kumar told the media that she “belongs to a poor family,” “her father is not alive,” and that “it seems she got involved in such activities for money.”
“These two new arrests have been made in Uttarakhand, and a transit warrant is awaited for them to be brought to Mumbai. The student first arrested from Bengaluru is in Mumbai. As of now, all three of them are giving different versions. They will be brought to Mumbai and then they all will be confronted and questioned together. Mastermind will be caught. We are probing,” Maharashtra Minister Satej Patil said.
Many media houses had reported on the financial background of the 18-year-old, indicating that she ‘got involved for money’ in the case.
Meanwhile, Mumbai Police Commissioner Hemant Nagrale briefed the media on the arrests on Wednesday, saying that two of those nabbed are from Uttarakhand, adding some more people could be involved in this matter. Police are investigating whether there was a conspiracy in the case, he said. "The probe in the case is on and anyone involved in the crime directly or indirectly will be arrested and prosecuted, he said. As the investigation is of a sensitive nature, we will not be able to share more details, he added. As the investigation is online, sharing details may hamper the probe, he said.
#BulliBaiApp case update:
— Satej (Bunty) D. Patil (@satejp) January 5, 2022
@MumbaiPolice has arrested a 3rd accused, a 21-year old man from Uttarakhand in connection with the #BulliBaiApp with credible evidences. I am sure that Mumbai police will soon unearth the entire nexus that enables such crime against women.
Nagrale expressed displeasure over the versions of the case developments put out by authorities outside Maharashtra. “Some local authorities have given some versions, which I feel, was not required. They were not aware of the details of the case. Generally, we don't speak about cases of other states,” he said.
“If you don't have proper information, then you should not issue statement on it (case),” he said.
Hundreds of Muslim women were listed for "auction" on the 'Bulli Bai' mobile application with photographs sourced without permission and doctored. It has happened for the second time in less than a year. The app appeared to be a clone of 'Sulli Deals' which triggered a similar row last year. The Mumbai police previously registered an FIR against unknown persons and arrested Shweta Singh, Vishal Kumar Jha and Mayank Rawal. The Mumbai cyber police also registered a case against the app's unidentified developers and Twitter handles which promoted it.
The Delhi Police also registered an FIR on Saturday and on Tuesday, transferred the case to its Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations unit. Earlier this week, the Delhi Police had said that it sought details from the GitHub platform about the developer of the controversial mobile application and had also written to Twitter for information about the account handler who first posted about the app.