While rejecting the bail plea of Vishal Kumar Jha (21), an accused in the Bu**i Bai – app case, the Mumbai sessions court has said a “thorough custodial interrogation is required,” adding that “the role of accused Vishal Jha cannot be bifurcated from the rest of the accused.”
Justice Sanjashree Gharat reportedly said, “In order to investigate the undetected aspects of the crime, custodial interrogation is required. Therefore, at this stage, as the investigation is in progress, the prayer of the accused for release on bail cannot be allowed”.
Jha, was arrested in Bengaluru on January 4, remanded to police custody and later sent to judicial custody after he contracted Covid-19. According to a report in India Today, he then moved the magistrate’s court for bail, which was rejected and he approached the Sessions Court. According to the report while rejecting the bail, the judge observed that Niraj Bishnoi, who is accused of developing the Bu**i Bai app had done so with the help of the other accused in the case, including Jha.
In wake of two apps – Su**i Deals and Bu**i Bai – putting up names, images, Twitter handles and other details of outspoken Muslim women, offering them up for “auction”, Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP), and several human rights organisations had written to the Mumbai Police Commissioner, urging him to conduct a deeper probe into the matter so that the real perpetrators of these heinous crimes can be revealed. The letter acknowledged the swift action taken by the Mumbai Police is arresting three perpetrators, but raises concerns regarding the wider conspiracy and how that should be investigated in-depth. It stated, “The persons who set things in motion are often found to be pawns of people who have power and clout, both political, social and economic. It seems clear, these young people who are now accused in the case, had some ‘influential persons’ and ‘forces’ who may have been directing them to act. Investigating these would possibly reveal the larger, grave and sinister motives behind these ‘auctions’.” CJP and others had urged the police “to investigate hard and dig deeper into this matter to get to the root of which individuals or organisations are the real conspirators.”
Jha’s advocate Shivam Deshmukh, submitted that Jha had been “falsely implicated in the case and had not committed any offence” and that “the prosecution had failed to prove that the Twitter account purportedly belonging to Jha had been used to malign the image of the complainant or any other woman.” However, according to public prosecutor Kalpana Hire, who opposed the bail application, as Jha was shifted to a Covid centre, he could not be confronted with the information on the devices. She told the court that Jha had six Twitter, two Instagram, one YouTube and six Gmail accounts, “hence, a thorough investigation would be required.” His account on the Github platform also requires investigation and Jha is a member of the Twitter groups ‘High IQ Bruh’ and ‘Trad Mahasabha’, where the link to the Bulli Bai App had been shared.
Remember the TRADs?
In wake of two successive apps that provide an online platform for “auction” of Muslim women, an ecosystem of TRADs had come to light. These TRADs are the ones running an elaborate social media campaign to popularise these apps. Delhi police revealed that both Aumkareshwar Thakur (arrested from Indore in the S**li Deals case) and Niraj Bishnoi (arrested from Assam in the B**li Bai case) were members of TRAD groups online. According to the police, Thakur had joined a TRAD group named Trad Mahasabha using the @gangescion Twitter handle. He reportedly told the police that the idea to target and defame Muslim women came from discussions among members of this group. However, he appears to have deleted his online footprint.
Simply put, TRADs are Hate groups comprising people who identify as “Traditionalists” or “Trads”. Additionally, the name is also an acronym of sorts and stems from the fact that these groups are operating predominantly on Telegram, Reddit, 4chan and Discord (thus TR4D or TRAD).
Related:
‘S**li Deals’ a form of Hate Speech: UN Special Rapporteur
Bulli Bai case: Are arrests enough to quell the storm?
Has inaction prompted another Muslim women’s auction on the internet?
Being a Muslim woman in India: A story
I’m a vocal Indian Muslim woman, not an object to be auctioned
CJP approaches Twitter over sexually violent content against Mu