Editor's Pick: Offensive app ‘creator’ arrested

Days after the Mumbai Police made three arrests in the case pertaining to the offensive app which targeted Muslim women, the Delhi Police on Thursday arrested a 20-year-old B.Tech. student for allegedly creating the application. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell Cyber Unit) K.P.S. Malhotra said the accused had been identified as Niraj Bishnoi, a resident of Jorhat in Assam and a second year student of the Vellore Institute of Technology in Bhopal. “The Special Cell has arrested the main conspirator and creator of the Bulli Bai app on GitHub. With the arrest, the controversial app case has been solved completely,” Mr. Malhotra claimed. A senior police officer said help had been sought from the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-IN), an office within the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. “Raw data analysis — along with the technical details — was undertaken and the suspect was identified to be based in Jorhat after which raids were conducted and Niraj was arrested,” the officer said. The accused was brought to Delhi by air on Thursday afternoon and interrogated. Later in the evening, a court remanded him in police custody for seven days. During interrogation, sources said the accused disclosed that he was the person who had created the app on GitHub. “He had also created the Twitter handle @bullibai_ and other handles. He further disclosed that the GitHub account was developed in the month of November 2021 and finally updated the app in December 2021,” the officer said. The police said Mr. Bishnoi was continuously monitoring the development of the case on social media and also tweeted that Mumbai Police had arrested the wrong person. “When this fiasco started I wasn’t even aware of what it might entail,” the Twitter handle (@giyu44) posted, adding that he created the Bulli Bai app by cloning the Sulli Deals application. In an editorial after the Mumbai arrests, The Hindu pointed out that Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi had written twice to the Union IT minister, in July and September, about several social media platforms or events that were being used to berate Muslim women. “In November, the minister replied that the Ministry was working on ‘identifying the gaps in current legislation to address contemporary issues of cyberspace including provisions to protect citizens, especially women, from any online harassment and cyber bullying’.” As online mobs roam free with impunity in the meantime, this story becomes important. 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[Arrow]( [Open in browser]( [Mail icon]( [More newsletters]( Offensive app ‘creator’ arrested [Offensive app ‘creator’ arrested] Days after the Mumbai Police made three arrests in the case pertaining to the offensive app which targeted Muslim women, the [Delhi Police on Thursday arrested a 20-year-old B.Tech. student for allegedly creating the application](. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell Cyber Unit) K.P.S. Malhotra said the accused had been identified as Niraj Bishnoi, a resident of Jorhat in Assam and a second year student of the Vellore Institute of Technology in Bhopal. “The Special Cell has arrested the main conspirator and creator of the Bulli Bai app on GitHub. With the arrest, the controversial app case has been solved completely,” Mr. Malhotra claimed. A senior police officer said help had been sought from the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-IN), an office within the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. “Raw data analysis — along with the technical details — was undertaken and the suspect was identified to be based in Jorhat after which raids were conducted and Niraj was arrested,” the officer said. The accused was brought to Delhi by air on Thursday afternoon and interrogated. Later in the evening, a court remanded him in police custody for seven days.  During interrogation, sources said the accused disclosed that he was the person who had created the app on GitHub. “He had also created the Twitter handle @bullibai_ and other handles. He further disclosed that the GitHub account was developed in the month of November 2021 and finally updated the app in December 2021,” the officer said. The police said Mr. Bishnoi was continuously monitoring the development of the case on social media and also tweeted that Mumbai Police had arrested the wrong person. “When this fiasco started I wasn’t even aware of what it might entail,” the Twitter handle (@giyu44) posted, adding that he created the Bulli Bai app by cloning the Sulli Deals application. In an editorial after the Mumbai arrests, The Hindu pointed out that Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi had written twice to the Union IT minister, in July and September, about [several social media platforms or events that were being used to berate Muslim women](. “In November, the minister replied that the Ministry was working on ‘identifying the gaps in current legislation to address contemporary issues of cyberspace including provisions to protect citizens, especially women, from any online harassment and cyber bullying’.” As online mobs roam free with impunity in the meantime, this story becomes important.   [underlineimg] The Hindu Editorials [Arrow][Exception and exemption: On Australia denying entry to Novak Djokovic]( [Arrow][No room for complacency: On tackling Omicron]( [underlineimg] Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Head over to our newsletter subscription page to sign up for Editor's Pick and more. 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