In its detailed order rejecting bail to the 21-year-old engineering student arrested in connection with the GitHub app case by the Mumbai police, the court has said he had created accounts on Twitter based on fake identities. It also said that the creators of the app tried to portray that they belong to a particular community. “…it resulted in causing defamation, hurting the feelings of a particular community and dignity and modesty of women,” additional sessions judge Sanjashree J Gharat said in her order. The police had alleged that the hate app hosted doctored photographs and objectionable comments targeting Muslim women in the country and the creators and followers had tried to portray themselves as belonging to the Sikh community. The sessions court had rejected the bail plea of Vishal Jha on Monday. Its detailed order was made available on Wednesday. Jha in his plea filed through lawyers Shivam Deshmukh and Aarti Deshmukh had submitted that he was a mere follower of the app. It was also submitted that he belonged to a respectable family and does not have any criminal antecedents. Jha, a second-year civil engineering student studying in Bengaluru, also said that he had already submitted his electronic devices to the Mumbai police and his further custody was not required. It was also submitted that a similar case is filed in Delhi, therefore, the FIR in Mumbai is not maintainable. The prosecution led by Kalpana Hire opposed the plea stating that Jha had created multiple accounts and his presence is required to access the electronic devices seized in the probe. It was also submitted that the two First Information Reports (FIRs) in Mumbai and Delhi result from separate cases. “So far as the present case in hand is concerned, the victims in both the matters are different. What is identical is the platform used by the accused for commission of offence. Therefore, the grievance of the victim who filed the complaint cannot be ignored merely because the victim filed a complaint against her grievance at Delhi,” the court said. The court added that the investigation is still at an initial stage. Jha and others were arrested in January by the Mumbai police following a complaint by a woman about her photograph being used on the app. The metropolitan magistrate's court had earlier rejected his bail plea.
