Third arrest in hate app: 21-year-old DU student from Uttarakhand
The accused was identified as Mayank Rawat, 21, a student who was in touch with the other accused in the case, Shweta Singh, 18, and Vishal Kumar Jha, 21. The police said the three are part of a larger team.
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The cyber cell of Mumbai police had earlier arrested Shweta Singh (19), alleged to be the main culprit, from Uttarakhand. (File photo)THE MUMBAI police on Wednesday made their third arrest in the case related to the app which hosted doctored photographs and objectionable comments targeting Muslim women — a 21-year-old Delhi University (DU) student from Uttarakhand.
“The third person arrested in the case, Mayank Rawat, is 21 years old, and is a B.Sc. student at Zakir Hussain College in Delhi. He was here in his hometown, and was arrested from Rajendra Nagar colony in Kotdwar (Pauri Garhwal district). His father, Pradeep Singh, is in the Army, and is reported to be posted in Jammu. We came to know that he is a bright student and was doing well in his studies,” Additional SP (Kotdwar) Manisha Joshi told The Indian Express. She said Rawat would be taken to Mumbai for questioning.
In Delhi, a faculty member from the college said Rawat is a third-year student in the B.Sc. (Honours) Chemistry programme. Principal Sangeeta Pandita said: “We haven’t really got information about this yet. We will look into this soon.”
On Monday, Vishal Kumar Jha, a 21-year-old engineering student, was picked up from Bengaluru. A day later, Shweta Singh, 19, was arrested from Udham Singh Nagar district in Uttarakhand. Uttarakhand Police sources said Rawat was tracked through his cellphone, which he allegedly used to share links of the webpages.
Vishal Kumar Jha has been sent to police custody till Jan 10. (ANI)
Mumbai Police sources said Rawat was suspected to be actively involved in promoting the obscene and derogatory content posted on the app.
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.
Addressing the press on Wednesday, Mumbai Police Commissioner Hemant Nagrale said they were trying to ascertain the motive behind the crime and whether the three accused were paid to do it. “The investigation is still in process, we are trying to ascertain whether more people are involved in the crime,” he said.
“We came to know that a Twitter handle @bullibai, which had posted these derogatory pictures on social media, was created by (Shweta) Singh. When we checked the app on GitHub, we found that an account under the name of ‘Khalasa Supremacist’ was following the app,” said a Mumbai Police officer.
On further investigation, the Mumbai Police cyber cell found that Jha was handling the “Khalasa Supremacist” account. “Jha had used a proxy location of Canada to mislead us. However, we managed to trace him and got him to Mumbai; he later confessed to his crime. We have recovered a mobile phone, two Sim cards, and a laptop,” said a press release issued by the Mumbai Police.
According to police, Jha also had a YouTube channel.
“The trio, who met on social media, had alleged that the app was created by Khalsa Singh Force and they deliberately used Sikh names to divert the attention of Twitter users,” said Nagrale.
Meanwhile, Mamta Bohra, SP (City), Udham Singh Nagar, Uttarakhand, said Shweta Singh had lost her father to Covid last year and mother to cancer in 2011. She has three siblings — an older sister, a younger sister and a younger brother.
Uttarakhand Police sources said primary investigations revealed that Singh had created the account, jatkhalsa7, on the instructions of a social media friend in Nepal. The account was used to post contents of the app.
Mumbai Police sources said while Jha has alleged that Singh had created the app, she is unlikely to have the technical expertise to do so. Police are investigating if she was among those who created the app. Jha has reportedly told police that he was only following instructions given by others accused in the case. He was reportedly told to check if the app link could be found on the internet, and he also followed the app on GitHub. He said he kept in touch with Singh over WhatsApp and Instagram.
Jha is alleged to have been operating six Twitter accounts, two Instagram accounts and seven Gmail accounts. He has deactivated his six Twitter accounts.
“We are a middle-class family from Bihar. He was sent to Bengaluru two years ago to pursue engineering. We have spent over Rs 10 lakh till now on his studies and accommodation. He got 89 per cent in his higher secondary exam, he is good in Maths. He planned to go to the US for further studies… all his dreams have been shattered. He told us that his Twitter account was hacked. We had no idea about his activities. If he has done wrong, then he must be punished,” said a family member of Jha who did not want to be named. Jha’s father is employed with the Railways.
The three accused have been booked under IPC Sections 153 (A) (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion), 153 (B) (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration), 295(A) (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings), 354 D (stalking), 509 (insulting modesty) and 500 (defamation) along with Section 67 (transmitting obscene content in electronic form) of the IT Act.
Based on a complaint filed by one of the women targeted by the app, the Mumbai Police Crime Branch’s cyber police station (west) had lodged an FIR on January 2 against unknown persons who developed the app and some Twitter handles that disseminated its content.
Meanwhile, a Twitter handle @giyu44 on Wednesday claimed that he/ she was the app creator, and threatened to create a second version if “innocents” continued to be targeted. In a series of tweets, the person asked Mumbai Police to “publicly apologise for arresting two innocents and defaming them”. “I will personally surrender if someone arranges for my travel by flight,” said a tweet. Police sources said they were trying to trace the user.
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