Failure of Delhi Police to arrest another hate app creator inspired Bishnoi, says Mumbai police

Vishal Kumar Jha (21), Shweta Singh (18), Mayank Rawat (21), Niraj Singh (28), Bishnoi and Thakur were part of Trad Mahasabha and other Twitter groups. Trad Mahasabha was a special group made for selected people. The criteria for being a part of this group was they must be Hindus, conduct themselves as Hindus, keep a watch on those who insult Hindus or Hindu gods, troll them and expose them.

How to report an account from rival group and how to mask your identity by using VPN were also taught on the group, said police. The members mainly opposed the followers of the group Indian Muslim Twitter (IMT).

Thakur had posted the source code of his app on the group. Instructions were given on the group to track Muslim women journalists who are active on social media and regularly write on issues that are opposing to the views of Hindu religion. Accordingly, profile photos of such women on social media were used to commit the crime, said police.

In one of the chats, the group members discussed that the Delhi Police, despite registering an FIR, was unable to trace them as they were “efficient enough” in hiding their identities. This emboldened and inspired Bishnoi, who used the source code taken from the group to create his app, the police added.

Bishnoi then informed group members that he has collected 50 photos of Muslim women and wants 50 more.

The police said the Trad Mahasabha members asked Bishnoi to wait for sometime but he managed to upload data of 102 Muslim women on the app. He asked his three followers – Jha, Singh and Rawat – to change the names of their Twitter handles to Sikh names to portray that people from the community were behind the app.

Meanwhile, as Bishnoi’s custody ended on Thursday, he was produced before a magistrate court, which remanded him to further custody of the cyber police till January 31. Thakur and Niraj Singh were sent to judicial custody.