The discovery of evidence in the ‘Bulli Bai’ App case helped Delhi Police arrest a Madhya Pradesh man, alleged to write codes for the ‘Sulli Deals’ case from 2020. On Sunday, a Delhi court sent him into police custody for four days, police said to ANI.
The Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) of Delhi Police Special Cell detained 26-year-old Aumkareshwar Thakur from Indore on Sunday, in connection with the ‘Sulli Deals’ case.
In July 2020, nearly 80 Muslim women were listed “for sale”, on a fake online auction, known as “Sulli Deals“, also hosted by GitHub. “Sulli” is a derogatory term used by Hindu men against Muslim women. The Delhi Police had registered a First Information Report, after the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) and the National Commission for Women (NCW) had called for an investigation but no concrete action had been taken, at the time.
On January 1, nearly 112 Muslim women found themselves listed on a similar online auction on an app named ‘Bulli Bai’ including actor Shabana Azmi along with several journalists such as Ismat Ara, Arfa Khanum Sherwani, Fatima Khan, and Kashmir-based journalist Quratulain Rehbar. Author Saba Naqvi, poet Nabiya Khan, RJ Sayema, Pakistani Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai, activist Khalida Parveen and several other female Muslim activists who frequently voice their opinions on social media, were also listed. The app put up pictures of Muslim women as part of a fake ‘online auction’ along with the caption ‘Bulli of the day’ and their Twitter handles.
But, this time, the Delhi police and the Mumbai police registered the cases and began to investigate, further. The Delhi Police also sought information from Twitter and the hosting platform GitHub, used by both the apps, about the app as well as its developer.
Both Delhi and Mumbai police also arrested four people related to the case in the past week- 18-year-old Shweta Singh from Uttarakhand, 21-year-old engineering student Vishal Kumar from Bangalore, 21-year-old Mayank Rawat, a student of B.Sc Chemistry at Delhi University’s Zakir Hussain College, and 20-year-old Neeraj Bishnoi, a student of B.Tech from Vellore Institute of Technology in Bhopal, alleged to be the main creator and conspirator behind the ‘Bulli Bai’ App.
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The Delhi police have reportedly found that Bishnoi had 153 downloads of pornography and lewd, sexual content, on his laptop. Evidence also points out to him as a “porn addict” who “has abnormal desires towards elderly Muslim women”.
During the interrogation session with Bishnoi, the Delhi Police’s IFSO found proof, which aided them in arresting Thakur. “He is being interrogated&his laptop is under forensic examination,” said Delhi Police DCP(IFSO) KPS Malhotra to ANI.