Hate app case: Police picked up accused engineering student from Bengaluru classroom

“A group of people came to the college around 11.30 am on Monday and introduced themselves as policemen. They showed their ID cards and asked for Vishal and explained briefly about the case. He was attending a class and was called to the faculty chamber from where he was taken into custody,” said the faculty member.

He said Jha was an average student and was in the third semester of an engineering programme. “We started offline classes from October 4, and he started attending classes since then. He is a resident of Bihar and we have no idea about his activities. His attendance was 60 per cent and, as per the protocol of the college, we informed his parents about the police taking him to Mumbai,” the HoD said.

According to police sources, Jha, who has been arrested, and the woman became friends on social media and created the app together.

Jha, who is from Bihar, was produced before a magistrate court in Mumbai which conducted in-camera proceedings on Tuesday afternoon. He was sent to police custody till January 10.

“The police, in their remand application, said they want to conduct searches at his residence and collect documents related to the case. They said there are more accused in the case and hence the proceedings were conducted behind closed doors,” said Jha’s advocate, Dinesh Pragmati.

The app was hosted on US-based GitHub on December 31. Doctored photos of at least 100 Muslim women, along with lewd remarks and comments, were posted online.