Man arrested for selling Muslim women on app called Sulli Deals

Last year, an app put over 80 Muslim women’s images up for “sale” online. In July 2021, Sulli Deals was hosted on GitHub.

An app called Bulli Bai had previously released photographs of over 100 Muslim women.

Four students were arrested, including a 21-year-old purported creator of the second app.

On deliberately degraded and humiliated Muslim women, many of whom have spoken out against the rising wave of Hindu nationalism under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Right-wing Hindu trolls call Muslim women “sulli” and “bulli.” After the Bulli Bai app sparked public criticism, one of the women who had submitted a police complaint in July said that Delhi police had yet to act.

Aumkareshwar Thakur was detained in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, on Sunday. Mr Thakur’s name came up during questioning of Neeraj Bishnoi, the purported designer of the Bulli Bai app.

A cyber crime squad deputy commissioner told the BBC that Mr Thakur’s equipment are being examined. The Sulli Deals app used publicly available photos of women to generate profiles of “deals of the day”.

The app featured prominent Muslim journalists, activists, artists, and researchers. One of the women, a commercial pilot, told the BBC in July that the app gave her “chills.”

Several journalists, a Bollywood star, and the 65-year-old mother of a missing Indian student were among the women whose images were released without their consent.

A 2018 Amnesty International research on online harassment in India found that women from religious minorities and impoverished castes were more likely to be targeted.

Critics argue the divisive political climate in India has worsened recent years.