Hate app arrests: He would use his laptop till late… often past midnight, says Niraj Bishnoi’s father

Born and brought up in Jorhat, Bishnoi studied in a private school and later in a local engineering college, before he got a seat in VIT, Bhopal University. However, he never got to physically attend class there. Due to the Covid-19, for the past nearly two years Bishnoi had been attending online classes from his Jorhat home.

A grocery shop owner, his father told The Indian Express that the family was completely in the dark about the incidents that led to his arrest. “We have no idea how this happened and are in shock. We were asleep when the police landed at around 11 pm on Wednesday,” he said. He said there had to be “some mistake” in his son’s arrest.

He said his son was always glued to his laptop. “He would use his laptop till late… often past midnight. We do not know what he was doing. My wife and I would often tell him to get off it, and he would always respond: ‘Just five minutes more’.”

He said Bishnoi was “good in studies – especially computer sciences” and had no “negative records” during his school years.

“I would ferry him to school on a cycle but he never shared much with me. I have not met a single friend of his since he would always be in his room, and hardly stepped out,” said the father.

Last month, Bishnoi and his mother attended a cousin’s wedding in Rajasthan. “They went to Delhi for 2-3 days and returned to Assam on December 25,” said the father, who hails from Rajasthan and had migrated to Assam in 1986 for business.

Bishnoi has two sisters – one is studying law, and the other mathematics.