Ishfaq-ul-Hassan
NEW DELHI—An 18-year-old woman from Uttarakhand has turned out to be the mastermind of the “Bulli Bai” app that put up prominent Muslim women for an ‘auction’.
Shweta Singh, a Class 12 student, is among three people arrested by Mumbai police so far. Mayank Rawal, a 21-year-old from Uttarakhand was arrested on Wednesday. Vishal Kumar Jha, an engineering student from Bengaluru, was arrested yesterday.
From Malala Yousufzai to Shabana Azmi and from Quratulain Rehbar to Ismat Aara, the miscreants had put up every prominent Muslim for sale. Rehbar, a Kashmir journalist, who had written extensively on Sulli Deals last year, has also been included this year.
‘Bulli Bai’ works just the same way as ‘Sulli Deals’. “Once you open it, you randomly find a Muslim woman’s face being displayed as Bulli Bai,” a social media user said.
The app used Git Hub, an American hosting platform for software projects. Once the app was opened, a Muslim woman’s photo popped up with the tagline, ‘Your Bulli Bai of the day’.
“Three people have been arrested for the ‘Bulli Bai’ app and Twitter handle. We are looking for more people,” Mumbai Police Commissioner Hemant Nagrale told reporters.
The youngest of them, Shweta Singh, was allegedly the brain behind the app. The teenager, also from Uttarakhand, controlled ‘Bulli Bai’ and three more apps.
“The app had five followers. We started investigating all of them. We came to know who were the operators. Pictures of well-known women were loaded along with objectionable messages,” Nagrale said.
Uttarakhand police said Shweta joined the app for money. Her father died of Covid and her mother had died earlier.
“The woman who was arrested from Uttarakhand’s Rudrapur in the ‘Bulli Bai’ app case belongs to a poor family and her father is not alive. It seems she got involved in such activities for money,” said Uttarakhand police chief Ashok Kumar.
Mumbai Police started an investigation after receiving a complaint that doctored photographs of hundreds of Muslim women were uploaded for an ‘auction’ on an app hosted on the open-source software platform GitHub.
It started when Ismat Aara, a Delhi-based journalist, called out `Bulli Bai’ after she was put up for auction. “It is very sad that as a Muslim woman you have to start your new year with this sense of fear and disgust. Of course, it goes without saying that I am not the only one being targeted in this new version of #sullideals,” she tweeted.
On Sunday, an FIR was registered by Cyber Police (South East Delhi) based on Ismat’s complaint under sections 153A (promoting enmity on grounds of religion), 153B (Imputations prejudicial to national integration), and 354A and 509 for sexual harassment.
Delhi Police said they were investigating a case filed by journalist Ismat Ara. “Concerned officials have been directed to take appropriate action,” Delhi police tweeted.
Priyanka Chaturvedi, an MP from Maharashtra’s ruling Shiv Sena, said a probe had also been launched in Mumbai.
”Have spoken to @CPMumbaiPolice and DCP Crime Rashmi Karandikar ji. They will investigate this. Have also spoken to @DGPMaharashtra for intervention. Hoping those behind such misogynistic and sexist sites are apprehended,” she tweeted.
