‘Young age, immaturity misused by co-accused’
Magistrate court that grants bail to three youngsters; denied relief to two co-accused
A magistrate court that granted bail to three youngsters accused in the Bulli Bai hate app case in which Muslim women were ‘auctioned’ online in early Jan, has said while giving them the relief, that their immature age and understanding was misused by other accused.
The court had at the same time denied bail to their two co-accused and said that the duo had used the tender understanding and immaturity of these youngsters with the intention to create hatred.
The common detailed order on the bail pleas of five accused was made available on Tuesday. The court had granted bail to Vishal Jha, 21, Shweta Singh, 18 and Mayank Rawat, 22 and denied relief to two others Aumkareshwar Thakur, 26 and Neeraj Singh, 28. Their co-accused Neeraj Bishnoi had withdrawn his bail application.
Metropolitan Magistrate Komalsing Rajput noted in the order that the role attributed to the first three is less serious than to the latter. While Thakur, Singh and Bishnoi are associated with creation of the app, uploading and dissemination of information in it, the former followed them and did some ancillary activities. They followed instructions of the trio and tried to hide their identity, it added.
While reasoning the granting of bail to the three, the court said that the investigation is completed, the chargesheet filed and that the accused are in custody since January, which is a substantial period. Even if the trial commences within a short span of time, it said that its immediate conclusion is not possible as the evidence is of a technical nature and spread across the country, thus that it will take substantial time. Advocate Shivam Deshmukh appearing for Jha had argued that he is just 21, pursuing engineering and has already spent considerable time in prison. Similar arguments were made for the others.
Magistrate Rajput while rejecting the bail pleas of Thakur and Singh, however, observed that the allegations as per the chargesheet are that they collected images of 100 reputed women from a particular community and uploaded those images…showing them to be a commodity for auction. “The allegations are serious and have wide implications,” he court stated, adding that the record reflects that they deliberately created the application. “The intention appears malafide. It can be said that they uploaded and disseminated information pertaining to women of a particular religion with the intention to create hatred.” it added. The court said that though they have attained sufficient age and understanding, they used tender understanding and immaturity of other accused persons for this purpose, by using their social media platforms.