‘Bulli Bai’ app row: Woman detained from Uttarakhand

PTI, Jan 4, 2022, 4:12 PM IST

Mumbai cyber police have detained a woman, believed to be the main accused in the ‘Bulli Bai’ app case, from Uttarakhand and also arrested an engineering student from Bengaluru in the case, officials said on Tuesday.

Police had earlier filed a first information report (FIR) against unidentified persons following complaints that photographs of Muslim women were uploaded for ‘auction’ on the app hosted by GitHub platform.

In this connection, a team of the Mumbai cyber police detained a woman from Uttarakhand, an official said, adding that she was the main accused. The official, however, refused to divulge any further details. A crime branch team is in Uttarakhand and the woman’s questioning is on, he said.

She will be produced before a court there for transit remand and will then be brought to Mumbai, he said.

Earlier, the cyber police also arrested a 21-year-old engineering student, identified as Vishal Kumar, from Bengaluru in connection with the case, the official said. Both the persons are known to each other, the official said, adding that further probe into the case is underway.

The Mumbai cyber police station had also registered a case against the app developers and Twitter handles that promoted the app.

Hundreds of Muslim women were listed for ‘auction’ on the ‘Bulli Bai’ app with photographs sourced without permission and doctored. It has happened for the second time in less than a year. The app appeared to be a clone of Sulli Deals which triggered a similar row last year. Amid outrage over Muslim women being targeted through the dodgy app, the Delhi Police had sought details from the GitHub platform about the developer of the ‘Bulli Bai’ mobile application and asked Twitter to block and remove related ”offensive contents” on its platform.

The police had also sought from Twitter information about the account handler who first tweeted about the app.

Leaders from across the political spectrum condemned the cyber harassment of women belonging to the minority community and called for strict action against the guilty.

Terming the matter ”serious”, the Delhi Minorities Commission had issued a notice to city police chief Rakesh Asthana seeking an action-taken report on January 10. It had said the interests of Muslim women need to be safeguarded by nabbing the culprits.