Bulli Bai case: Mumbai police arrest MBA graduate from Odisha

MUMBAI: The Mumbai cybercrime police on Thursday arrested an MBA graduate from Jharsuguda district in Odisha in connection with the Bulli Bai app case, which targeted Muslim women by putting up their images online for "auction". The accused, Neeraj Singh, is the fourth person to be arrested by Mumbai police, and the fifth overall.
Police claimed that he was involved in both Bulli Bai and Sulli Deals cases, and had planned and executed the two apps along with the creators, Neeraj Bishnoi (21) and Aumkareshwar Thakur (25).Singh was working in a private company in Noida before shifting to his hometown recently owing to the Covid pandemic.
On Thursday, Bishnoi and Thakur were produced before the Bandra court, which remanded them in police custody till January 27. The court also rejected the bail applications of Vishal Kumar Jha (21), a Bihar youth studying engineering in Bengaluru; and Uttarakhand residents Shweta Singh (18), a class XII passout, and Mayank Rawat (21), a BSc student, arrested in the Bulli Bai case.
A police officer said Neeraj Singh's name cropped up during the interrogation of Jha, Singh and Rawat. DCP (Mumbai cyber) Rashmi Karandikar confirmed Singh's arrest, but declined to comment further saying they have got his transit remand and will soon bring him to Mumbai.
Three days ago, Mumbai police were tipped off about Singh's presence in Bhubaneswar. They raided the place, but he was untraceable. Speculation is rife about Singh having worked in the office of a woman politician in Bhubaneswar. However, Singh's family said he was falsely implicated in the case. "The Mumbai police informed us that my brother was a member of the group that created the Bulli Bai app. But we know that he is innocent," Singh's brother, Nikesh (24) said. Singh's father runs a transport business.
Jha is lodged at Arthur Road jail and Singh at Byculla women's jail. Rawat is recuperating at Kalina Covid care centre. The bail pleas were rejected after cops informed magistrate Komal Singh Rajput that if released, they would de-stroy evidence. Lawyers Sand-eep Sherkhane, Arti Deshm-ukh and Shivam Deshmukh, for Jha, Singh and Rawat, said court denied bail fearing destruction of evidence. "They are scapegoats; their careers are at stake," said Sherkhane.