Uploading 100 Photos Of Muslim Women In Cyberspace For Harassment, Police Arrest An Engineering Student

Illustration. (Pixabay/TayebMEZAHDIA)

JAKARTA - Photos of more than a hundred Muslim women went viral on the open-source app, Bulli Bai, hosted on the web platform GitHub, with the photos being taken without individual permission, in an apparent attempt to target and harass Muslim women.

Mumbai Police, Maharashtra State, India late Monday detained a 21-year-old engineering student from Bengaluru, a city in Karnataka State, in connection with an application through which more than 100 Muslim women registered for an 'online auction'.

The arrest of the student, which has not been revealed in detail by police, is the first in the ongoing investigation, citing Sputnik News Jan. 4.

Concerned about the case, Maharashtra State Minister Satej Patil promised all victims the perpetrators "will face the law soon".

Earlier on Saturday, several Indian Muslim women took to Twitter to highlight how their photos were being used on the 'Bulli Bai' app. The app, which was said to be auctioning photos of several Muslim women, was removed on Saturday after public outcry on social media.

Bulli Bai seems to be a clone of a similar app, Sulli deals. In July, photos of dozens of Muslim women were uploaded to 'Sulli deals', where they were auctioned off as the 'deal of the day'.

"Sulli" and "Bulli" are derogatory words used by a handful of people there, to describe Muslim women.

Although a police complaint was filed in Sulli's deal case as well, no arrests were made.

So far, police complaints over Bulli Bai's application have been filed in three different states - Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana and Union Territory of Delhi.

Meanwhile, Delhi Women's Commission, an autonomous organization of the Delhi Government for women, wrote to Delhi Police, asking why no one has been arrested in connection with the 'Sulli deals' case.

The women's commission described the lack of action in the case, as "the callous attitude of law enforcement agencies."

Update on #BulliBai case:@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 culprits law very soon.

— Satej (Bunty) D. Patil (@satejp) January 3, 2022