Mumbai/Dehradun/New Delhi, Jan 4: An 18 year-old woman from Uttarakhand, and a 21 year-year old from Bengaluru were arrested by the Cyber Cell of Mumbai Police on Tuesday in connection with an App which has illegally put up photographs of Muslim women to show that they were on “auction”.
Police said the woman was the mastermind behind the app.
The man arrested from Bengaluru has been identified as Vishal, a second year student of engineering. He used his Twitter handle to share derogatory content from the Bulli Bai App, police said.
An official said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Cyber Cell) Rashmi Karndhikar questioned Vishal. The woman, whose name was not disclosed by police, is being brought to Mumbai from Rudrapur town of Uttarakhand to Mumbai on a transit remand.
Police sources said during the questioning, Vishal said the App was developed by the woman. He said it was initially developed by her “for fun”, and as it became popular, they started targeting Muslim women.
The arrested student was traced through the IP address of the Twitter accounts that were used to upload the pictures.
Vishal meanwhile opened an account by the name ‘Khalsa supremacist’. He also changed the names of other accounts to resemble Sikh names.
The App was hosted on the US-based GitHub. Doctored photos of at least 100 Muslim women, with photos of journalists, activists, actors, and many others being posted online, along with lewd remarks and comments.
Journalists organisation Indian Women’s Press Corps condemned the attempt to defame Muslim women, several journalists among them, through the App, and expressed solidarity with the women.
“It is shameful that incident of public ‘auction’ of Muslim women has happened. If police would have acted against ‘Sulli Deals’, this would not have happened.
