Police say 'publicity' was behind creation of 'Bulli Bai" app for accused

New Delhi: The Delhi Police on Friday said that the investigation in the 'Bulli Bai' app case has so far suggested that the mastermind's intention was to get publicity and make an identity of his own.

It further said that the probe has so far not revealed anyone else's involvement in motivating Niraj Bishnoi (21) into doing such activities and his action can be attributed to the type of social media content he consumed, PTI reported.

Police officials also stated that there is a possibility about Bishnoi's alleged involvement in the earlier 'Sulli Deals' case and added that they are investigating the matter.

Presently, the devices used by Bishnoi are being scanned, and through him, the officials are hoping to reach the culprits of Sulli Deals as well.

Further development into the probe has revealed that earlier, Bishnoi had allegedly posed as a media person and tried to mislead a case registered in the southwest district where a woman journalist had registered a complaint.

"During the Sulli Deal probe, he tried to mislead our team by calling them on WhatsApp by impersonating himself as a media person. He also tried to extract information about the developments in the probe. We found this through his phone records," the police official said.

Following the arrest of the 21-year-old student from Assam, the police claimed to have solved the Bulli Bai controversy in which photos of hundreds of Muslim women were posted for auction.

Police said during interrogation it was found that Bishnoi had earlier created various Twitter handles with the initial name of "giyu" which is a gaming character. The handles have been identified as @giyu2002, @giyu007, @giyuu84, @giyu94 and @giyu44. From @giyu007 account, he was active during the Sulli Deals case. "The account @giyu007 came into light when the Sulli Deal case was under investigation. Through this handle, he had tried to plant some information regarding the possible propagator/originator of Sulli Deals app," police said.

The father of the accused runs a ration shop, and the accused has two elder sisters, police said.

Further investigation is underway, the police said.

Bishnoi, a resident of Jorhat, who studies computer science engineering in Bhopal, was the fourth person to be arrested for their alleged involvement in the case. The other three, nabbed by Mumbai Police, include a 19-year-old woman from Uttarakhand, also alleged to be a prime accused in the case.

The Bulli Bai app was developed in November last year and updated in December. Bishnoi was also keenly monitoring social media.

Bishnoi disclosed during his interrogation that he created the "Bulli Bai" app on GitHub as well as the @bullibai_Twitter handle and others too, police said. The Twitter account was created on December 31.