New Delhi: Delhi's Patiala House Court on Saturday rejected the anticipatory bail plea of Vishal Jha, an accused in Bulli Bai App case. Additional Sessions Judge Dharmendra Rana passed this order while heading the bench. On January 21, the court had put an interim stay on the arrest of Vishal Jha, while the further hearing on the matter was scheduled for today.
Vishal had filed an anticipatory bail application in the Patiala House Court through his counsel Shivam Deshmukh who pleaded that Vishal was "falsely implicated in the matter". Vishal a resident of Bihar has been pursuing an engineering course at Bengaluru in Karnataka.
"Vishal was falsely implicated in the matter and he did not play any role in developing the Bulli Bai app," said his counsel. A woman journalist had filed a complaint her photograph was tampered with and uploaded on Bulli Bai App to defame her.
On January 4, Vishal, according to his advocate, visited the Mumbai Crime Branch and surrendered before the Cyber Cell. On January 10, he tested positive for Covid-19 infection and thereafter was sent to judicial custody. His electronic devices such as a mobile phone, laptop and two SIM cards are in the possession of investigating agency. "There is an apprehension that Vishal could be arrested for the FIR lodged in Delhi also," the counsel said.
While reserving the order, Additional District and Sessions Judge Dharmendra Rana said as per the reply of the investigating officer, the court found that the facts in the Bulli Bai app case are the same and only the FIRs in the case have been registered at Mumbai and Delhi, besides, complainants in the case are from different states.
In such a situation the Patiala House Court asked Delhi Police to establish whether the probe into the case shall proceed on the basis of FIR lodged in Delhi or Mumbai. Citing a ruling of the Supreme Court in TV journalist Arnab Goswami case, the judge said that the top court in its earlier judgement had observed that two FIRs could not be lodged for similar facts in a case.
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