'Bulli Bai' accused Bishnoi claims he hacked websites, was in touch with 'Sulli Deals' app maker
New Delhi, Jan 8: Niraj Bishnoi, the alleged mastermind and creator of the 'Bulli Bai' application, has revealed that he had the habit of hacking into and defacing the websites of schools and universities of both India and Pakistan, police officials said on Saturday.
They also said that Bishnoi has disclosed during interrogation that he was also in touch with the person behind the Twitter handle @sullideals, the alleged creator of the 'Sulli Deals' app that was hosted on GitHub in July last year.
The Delhi police had arrested 21-year-old Bishnoi from Assam and claimed that it has solved the case which relates to hundreds of Muslim women being listed for "auction" on the "Bulli Bai" app on the Github platform.
A resident of Jorhat who studies computer science engineering in Bhopal, Bishnoi is the fourth person to be arrested for their alleged involvement in the app. 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 claim of Bishnoi being in touch with the creator of the 'Sulli Deals' app is being verified. Further technical analysis is being done and forensic examination of devices is underway, police said.
"During interrogation, Bishnoi has revealed that he has the habit of hacking and defacing websites. He has been learning it since he was 15-year-old. He had hacked or defaced various websites of schools and universities of India as well as of Pakistan. His claims of hacking websites," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations) K P S Malhotra said.
Bishnoi has an inclination towards the Japanese animated gaming character 'GIYU'. He had created various Twitter handles using the word and used one such account to challenge the law enforcement agencies to nab him, police said.
He had earlier created various Twitter handles-- @giyu2002, @giyu007, @giyuu84, @giyu94 and @giyu44.
The account @giyu44 was created by the accused on January 3 to discredit the arrests made by the Mumbai Police in the case and to throw an open challenge to law enforcement agencies to nab him.
A day before his arrest, he had tweeted, "You have arrested the wrong person, slumbai police."
"Lmao only one guy was ever involved and that's me. You pajeets arrested a follower of that acc with sikh dp, who had nothing to do with the app and didn't tweet anything wrong. Do you have even the slightest bit of shame slumbai pulis?" Bishnoi had said.
Police said Bishnoi has further disclosed that he was in touch with the persons arrested by the Mumbai Police and used to chat through Twitter.
He had never met those persons and even did not have their contact numbers. He also disclosed that he was using the Twitter account of Shweta, arrested by the Mumbai Police, they said.
Bishnoi is trying to delay the investigation and not cooperating. He had also tried to harm himself twice and also threatened to commit suicide, police claimed.
Due care is being taken care of him in custody. His medical examination has been conducted and he is stable and unharmed. This may be due to his mental condition or maybe he wants to delay the investigation, police officials said.
Later, the police, in a statement, said that during social media monitoring, it came to notice that two websites were claiming that they had interviewed Bishnoi hours before his arrest.
"It is clarified that accused Niraj Bishnoi was disturbed after the arrest of three of his followers namely Vishal, Shweta and Mayank Rawal. He wanted to divert the attention of the media by claiming that Vishal and Shweta were innocent.
"To propagate this fact, he had created the Twitter account @giyu44 and started sharing the screenshots of the code creation and the email accounts used by him for creating the code on GitHub," according to the police statement.
Bishnoi had received mail from GitHub on the email account used by him, as a policy measure of GitHub, that they had received an information request from a law enforcement agency, it said.
"To support his claim of creation of the 'Bulli Bai' app and to prove the innocence of earlier arrested accused he had shared the login details, email details and screenshots with one Shubham Sharma and on Twitter also.
"Bishnoi had intentionally divulged the details with Sharma and on Twitter to gain publicity. He had shared only partial details to support his claim of the creation of the app. He communicated through VPN with them also, so that he could not be traced. He was challenging the law enforcement agencies to nab him," the police said.
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Court allows 5-day police custody of Bibhav Kumar in Swati Maliwal assault case
New Delhi (PTI): A Delhi court allowed five-day custodial interrogation of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's aide Bibhav Kumar in the Swati Maliwal assault case, sing the police remand was a "necessity" in the matter.
Metropolitan Magistrate Gaurav Goyal was hearing the application of Delhi Police which was represented by Additional Public Prosecutor Atul Srivastava. The police had sought seven day custody.
It is alleged that Kumar, who is Kejriwal's personal assistant, assaulted AAP MP Swati Maliwal at the CM's residence on May 13.
"Considering the submissions made on behalf of both the parties, I find there is a necessity of police custody remand in the present case. Accordingly, the application moved by the investigating officer (IO) is partly allowed and the accused is remanded to police custody for five days," the court said in its order passed around 12:45 AM Sunday.
It noted the prosecution's submissions about the need to take Kumar to Mumbai and other parts of the national capital to collect evidence, which was not possible without the accused's custody.
"Admittedly, the case is at a nascent stage. Allegations made in the FIR are corroborated in her (Maliwal's) statement recorded by the magistrate on oath and further, it is again corroborated in the medico-legal case (MLC) of the victim or complainant," the court said.
The magistrate also observed, "I am aware of the view of constitutional courts that the opportunity must be given to the investigating agency to complete the investigation in order to reach the truth of the matter but at the same time the rights of the accused are also to be protected."
Asking the Investigating Officer to take Kumar into formal custody, the court directed his medical examination every 24 hours and said the investigating agency would not subject the accused to "any torture."
It also allowed Kumar to meet his advocate and wife for half an hour each during the police custody.
Kumar's application for providing requisite medicines was also allowed.
The proceedings which commenced around 9: 15 PM Saturday saw initial arguments by Srivastava following which the magistrate said, "I find force in the arguments of the APP (Additional Public Prosecutor) that there were sufficient grounds to arrest the accused without notice."
The prosecutor made several arguments, including those mentioned in the remand application and also that the "means or weapon" by which Kumar assaulted Maliwal had to be recovered.
The vehement counter-arguments by Kumar's counsels continued for more than one-and-a-half hours. One of his counsels, Rajiv Mohan, claimed that Maliwal had lodged the FIR "belatedly after deliberation and concoction."
The Delhi Police arrested Kumar earlier on Saturday and his anticipatory bail plea was subsequently observed as becoming "infructuous" by a Delhi court.
