Mumbai Police Cyber Cell has detained a 21-year-old man from Bengaluru in connection with the ‘Bulli Bai’ app case. Mumbai Police gave this information on Monday. This is the first major action in the case after Maharashtra Minister of State for Home Satej Patil on Monday directed the police to take action against the developers of the “Bully Bai” app. The 21-year-old accused, arrested by the Mumbai Police Cyber Cell from Bangalore in the ‘Bully Bye’ app case, is an engineering student.
We are continuously chasing criminals: Minister
After the arrest, Maharashtra’s Minister of State for Home Satej Patil said, “@MumbaiPolice has got a breakthrough.Though we cannot disclose the details at this moment as it may hamper the ongoing investigation, I would like to assure all the victims that we are proactively chasing the culprits & they will face the law very soon.” Mumbai Police has not disclosed the identity of the suspect, other than the age of the suspect, who was detained from Bengaluru on the ‘Bulli Bai’ app case. Police have registered a case against unknown criminals under relevant sections of IPC and IT Act. Mumbai Police sources said that the accused student was running an objectionable Twitter handle and uploading the content.
Earlier in the day, Delhi Police sought details from the GitHub platform about the developer of the dodgy application and asked Twitter to block and remove related “offensive content” on its platform. The police have also sought information from Twitter about the account handler who first tweeted about the app. On Sunday, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnav said that the government is working with the police in Delhi and Mumbai, where cases have been registered in this regard.
It is alleged that pictures of Muslim women were posted “for auction” on the “Bulli Bai” app. Meanwhile, the minister had questioned the Center over the inaction against the “Sulli Deals” app. In fact, before the “Bulli Bai” app, there was a similar “Sulli Deals” app that is alleged to have “auctioned” Muslim women in a similar fashion last year. A few months ago some unidentified persons had created a similar app ‘Sulli Deal’ in which photographs of hundreds of Muslim women, taken from their social media accounts, were uploaded and auctioned. After the outrage on social media, the central government had directed to remove the app. Now an app named ‘Bulli Bai’ was found allegedly auctioning pictures of Muslim women. Although this app has also been removed.
On Saturday, a female journalist shared a picture of herself being sold on the ‘Bulli Bai’ app as the ‘deal of the day’. “It is very sad that as a Muslim woman you have to start your new year with this fear and hatred,” the journalist said on Twitter. Leaders across party lines have condemned the cyber harassment of women from the minority community and demanded strict action against the culprits. Many people have blamed right-wing elements for this. Hundreds of Muslim women were listed for “auction” on the app, whose photographs were taken without permission and tampered with. This is the second time this has happened in less than a year.