‘Bulli Bai’ App Row: 21 Year Old Bengaluru Engineering Student Detained By Mumbai Police
2022 is here, but a safe space for women in India still seems like a distant dream. And amidst this ongoing struggle, an app called Bulli Bai is showcasing manipulated pictures of Muslim women. Moreover, the pictures of women from the community are being used without their consent on this online portal, which shares an almost identical interface with the Sulli Deals app, that sprouted in July, last year. Holding auctions of Muslim women from the community, several others found their forged images on the digital platform’s ‘Bulli of the Day’ section (I mean, what?). The terms ‘Bulli‘ and ‘Sulli‘ are derogatory terms used for Muslim women with the intent to disrespect them.
And now with the ongoing investigation, Mumbai police have got their hands on the culprit. As per a brief report by ANI, a 21-year-old man was detained from Bengaluru in connection with the application, who was running one of the offending Twitter handles, said the Mumbai Police on Monday. A second-year student of civil engineering in Bengaluru, the police refrained from revealing any further details and registered a case against the unknown culprit under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act.
Mumbai Police Cyber Cell has detained a 21-year-old man from Bengaluru in connection with 'BulliBai' app, say police.
— ANI (@ANI) January 3, 2022
Maharashtra home minister Dilip Walse Patil on Sunday said that Mumbai Cyber police has filed a case and so has the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) against those involved in putting up the pictures. While Maharashtra minister of state for home (urban) Satej Patil shared, “I would like to assure all the victims that we are proactively chasing the culprits and they will face the law very soon.”
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 law very soon.
— Satej (Bunty) D. Patil (@satejp) January 3, 2022
ALSO READ: After ‘Sulli Deals’ Yet Another Outrageous App ‘Bulli Deals’ Pops Up To Auction Muslim Women Once Again In A Bid To Harass Them. This Is Sick!
The platform came under spotlight, when many women including a journalist from The Wire, reported that their forged images are being used by the platform for the auctions. Furthermore, the complaint filed by the journalist seeks the registration of an FIR under IPC Sections 153A (Promoting enmity between groups on the grounds of religion), 153B (imputations prejudicial to national integration), 354A (sexual harassment), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 509 (words, sounds or gestures intending to insult the modesty of women), to be read with Sections 66 (sending grossly insensitive information through a computer resource) and 67 (sending lascivious or lewd matter) of the Information Technology (IT) Act.
UPDATE: An FIR has been registered by Cyber Police (South East Delhi) on the basis of my complaint with IPC sections 153A (Promoting enmity on grounds of religion etc), 153B (Imputations prejudicial to national-integration), 354A & 509 for sexual harassment. #BulliDeals pic.twitter.com/dJ1mspyiGI
— Ismat Ara (@IsmatAraa) January 2, 2022
Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi, who had raised the issue of women from the minority community being targeted earlier too, shared, “When a similar thing happened in the Sulli Deals case last year, I had raised the issue but only the site was blocked. This time, too, the site was simply blocked. Simply blocking sites does not help. Action will be complete only when those who are responsible pay for it.”
I have repeatedly asked Hon. IT Minister @AshwiniVaishnaw ji to take stern action against such rampant misogyny and communal targeting of women through #sullideals like platforms. A shame that it continues to be ignored. https://t.co/Q3JLxZpNeC
— Priyanka Chaturvedi🇮🇳 (@priyankac19) January 1, 2022
Additionally, the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) has also asked police officials to appear before it later this week. Meanwhile, Delhi police have been extracting details about the developer of the Bulli Bai mobile application from the GitHub platform, the police force asked Twitter to block and remove related “offensive contents” on its platform. The Union government had cited offending content against women as one of the reasons for framing the new digital rules that called for intermediaries for identifying the user hosting the offensive content within 24 hours. While this latest incident has shocked and scared many women on the internet, what is even more shameful is that it took place for a second time. With internet being a boon for many, we hope it doesn’t turn to be a bane for some. We hope the minds behind the filthy platform are revealed soon.
