A Delhi court will look into whether two separate FIRs filed in the same case against engineering student Vishal Sudhirkumar Jha (21), one of the accused in the GitHub app case in which photographs of 100 Muslim women were hosted without their consent, can be legally investigated. Jha, a second-year civil engineering student studying in Bengaluru, was arrested by the Mumbai Police earlier this month. He was the first of the four people to be arrested in connection with the app. Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana passed the order after it came to his notice that an FIR is also registered in Mumbai based on the same facts, and that the case is also under investigation there, while hearing arguments on Jha’s anticipatory bail application in Delhi. The investigating officer of the case told the court that the complainant in both FIRs were different. ASJ Rana was of the opinion that “mere difference in the name of the complainant would not make the two FIRs on the same cause of action legally permissible”. The court relied on a Supreme Court judgment dealing with the issue of registration of multiple FIRs on the same cause of action and said a second FIR based on the same cause of action is legally not permissible. “Thus, for a just and legal adjudication of the instant application, it becomes mandatory for this court to resolve the issue as to which of the two FIRs, i.e. one pending investigation in Mumbai and one pending investigation in Delhi, can be legally investigated,” it said. The DCP concerned has been asked to file a detailed reply in the case to assist the court on the next date of hearing, depicting the difference between the subject matter of the two FIRs and which FIR was filed earlier. Police have been asked not to take any coercive action till the next date of hearing. Advocate Shivam Deshmukh moved the anticipatory bail application on behalf of the applicant, arguing that he has “no role to play in the creation of the alleged app. Even if, for the sake of argument, it is presumed that the applicant was following the ‘Bulli Bai’ app, then it in no manner constitutes an offence”. He argued that Jha surrendered to the Cyber Crime (BKC) Western Division, Mumbai, on January 4 and was remanded in judicial custody on January 10. Additional Public Prosecutor Irfan Ahmed opposed the plea, stating that the applicant was “part of a group chat called ‘Trad Mahasabha’ and as a result of discussion in said group chat, the alleged app on GitHub was created by accused Neeraj Bishnoi”. The prosecutor submitted that the investigation is at an initial stage, and he needs to be interrogated, for which a team has already been sent to Mumbai. The app was hosted on US-based GitHub on December 31. On January 2, separate FIRs were registered in Delhi and Mumbai, based on complaints by women who were among those targeted. Earlier this month, a Delhi court dismissed the bail plea of Neeraj Bishnoi, who is accused of creating the app, observing that his act was an “affront to the dignity of women of a particular community and communal harmony of society”.
