A woman was detained by Mumbai Police from the northern state of Uttarakhand on Tuesday (January 4) related to the ‘Bulli Bai’ app. The detained person is believed to be the mastermind behind the app targeting Muslim women.
“A woman has been detained by the cyber cell of Mumbai Police in Uttarakhand. Seems like is the main mastermind behind the app. She will be presented before a court in Uttarakhand for transit remand. After obtaining the transit remand, she will be brought to Mumbai,” a police official has said.
The ‘Bulli Bai’ app recently surfaced resulting with major outrage. Nearly six months ago, another similar website ‘Sulli Deals’ engaging in derogatory targeting of Muslim women by non-consensual uploading of photos for auction via the hosting platform GitHub.
The arrest from Uttarakhand came after the first arrest was made in the case by Mumbai Police earlier in the day when it detained a 21-year-old civil engineering student from Bengaluru and questioned him for several hours in Mumbai. He was later produced in the Bandra court.
The police official said, “The detained woman and the arrested man became friends via social media site - Instagram. The racket behind the app includes many more people. Vishal changed his name on December 31. He took up a name related to the Sikh community.”
An FIR was filed on Monday (January 3) by the police against unknown individuals on the basis of complaints about the ‘Bulli Bai’ app on GitHub platform where non-consensual, doctored images of Muslim women were being uploaded for auction.
A case was filed on Sunday (January 2) at West Mumbai Cyber Police station against the app’s developers and Twitter handles found to be promoting it.
