'Bulli Bai' app case: Shweta Singh, Mayank Rawat sent to 14-day judicial custody

Shweta Singh and Mayank Rawat, arrested in the 'Bulli Bai' app case, were ordered to 14-day judicial custody by a Mumbai local court on Friday, after the former claimed she was slapped during questioning. Both suspects were nabbed in Uttarakhand earlier this month by Mumbai police connected with the 'Bulli Bai' app, which targeted Muslim women. Singh, 18, and Rawat, 21, also applied for bail shortly after being placed in judicial custody for 14 days by a magistrate's court in suburban Bandra. After learning that Rawat had tested positive for coronavirus, Metropolitan Magistrate Komalsing Rajput sentenced them to prison.

Vishal Jha, the first person arrested in the case and the investigating officer, tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this week. According to Jha's attorney, Shivam Deshmukh, the prosecution informed the court on Friday that Jha and Rawat were being treated at a COVID-19 care centre in Mumbai's Kalina district. The court set the hearing on all three accused's bail petitions for January 17 and asked the prosecution to file its answer to their pleas by then. Singh's lawyer claimed that she was slapped during interrogation during Friday's hearing. The magistrate's court subsequently requested that the police investigate the alleged occurrence.

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Following complaints from multiple women targeted by the 'Bulli Bai' app, the Mumbai police filed an FIR in the case. The software made the personal information of many Muslim women public, allowing others to bid on them in an 'auction.' The Delhi police's special cell, which has also filed an FIR in the matter, apprehended another suspect, Niraj Bishnoi, an engineering student from Assam, on January 6 and said he was the main inventor of the shady programme.

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• Bulli Bai
• Mayank Rawat
• Shweta Singh
• muslim women
• judicial custody
• Delhi Police