The alleged creator
of Sulli Deals, a GitHub app created to harass Muslim women, was granted bail
by a Delhi court on Tuesday along with alleged creator of the app Bulli Bai. Bail
was granted on humanitarian grounds as the court said both the accused are
first-time offenders and continued incarceration would be detrimental to their well-being.

Omkareshwar Thakur,
the person accused of creating Sulli Deals, was arrested on the basis of a
disclosure statement given by Niraj Bishnoi, the person accused of creating
Bulli Bai.

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Lawyers
representing the accused said there is no material on record that by any
stretch of imagination even remotely exhibit a prima facie case against the
applicant with respect to alleged offences in particular Section 153 A of the
Indian Penal Code (IPC) with the exception of concocted and fabricated
disclosure statements.

The prosecution, opposing
bail, said the investigation was underway and forensic reports besides
responses from intermediaries in the case were awaited.

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However, the court
held that pending forensic reports and replies were not a sufficient ground to
deny bail to Thakur, who had been in judicial custody since January 9, 2022.

Deputy
Commissioner of Police KPS Malhotra said the primary reason for granting bail
to the accused was that the results from the FSL were yet to arrive and that
the trial court had relied upon evidence against the accused and no shortcoming
in investigation was found.

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Niraj Bishnoi, 20,
a second-year BTech student, was arrested from Assam on January 6 while Thakur
was arrested on January 9. According to the Delhi police, Bishnoi had said the
app was developed in November 2021 and updated in December.

Six people have
been arrested in the ‘Sulli Deals’ and ‘Bulli Bai’ cases so far in which photos
of more than 100 Muslim women that hosted the app for auctioning on January 1.
The website was later blocked.