For Bulli Bai App, the Mumbai police arrest Vishal Jha, a 21-year-old Bengaluru student, and Uttarakhand 18-year-old Shweta Singh.
Within two days of intense tracking, Mumbai Police managed to nab the real culprits behind the Bulli Bai App. The Sulli and Bulli Apps sparked a disturbance in a climate of hate. Police have said the app has no connection to Sikhs but the accused allegedly made it look as if it was linked to Khalistani groups.
Police have said the app has no connection to Sikhs but the accused allegedly made it look as if it was linked to Khalistani groups.
The cyber cell of Mumbai Police, which is probing the ‘Bulli Bai’ app case, has arrested an 18-year-old woman, alleged to be the main culprit, from Uttarakhand, and a 21-year-old engineering student from Bengaluru, officials said here on Tuesday.
The girl, 18, is said to be the ‘mastermind’ behind the ‘Bulli Bai’ app arrested from Rudrapur house in Udham Singh Nagar district in Uttarakhand by a Mumbai police team. Police said that Sweta Singh had just passed her 12th exams and was nabbed from her house in Adarsh Colony, Rudrapur. She was produced before a local court that in the evening put her on transit remand till January 5.
Vishal Kumar Jha, the student, and co-accused Shweta Singh, who is from Uttarakhand, allegedly knew each other. According to police, more arrests are likely.
While a court in Mumbai remanded Jha in police custody till January 10, a court in the northern state-granted city police four-day transit remand of Shweta Singh so that she could be brought here. She will be produced before the Mumbai court on Wednesday, said a senior police official.
How the Mumbai Police worked swiftly
The Mumbai Police had registered a First Information Report (FIR) against unidentified persons following complaints that doctored photographs of hundreds of Muslim women were uploaded for ‘auction’ on an app called ‘Bulli Bai’, hosted on the open-source software platform GitHub.
On the basis of information provided by sub-inspector Suyog Amritkar, the Mumbai police team, led by him plunged into hunt mode and arrested Sweta Singh with the help of local cops.
While there was no actual ‘auction’ or ‘sale’, the purpose of the app seemed to be to humiliate and intimidate the targeted Muslim women, many of whom are active social media users.
On studying the available information, they were able to deduce that Shweta Singh was operating multiple accounts related to the app. Vishal Jha, said the senior police official, was operating a Twitter handle by the name ‘Khalsa Supremacist’, and had changed the names of some other fake handles to resemble Sikh names. The sole objective was to defame Sikhs and Muslims, and link them to terrorist movements and create hatred between Sikhs and Muslims.
Some other Twitter handles which promoted the app also had pictures or caricatures of turbaned persons in their profile pictures and the posts in question contained text in the Punjabi script, in an obvious endeavor to raise deception about the identity and mislead the public, an official had said earlier.
A team of the Mumbai cyber police arrested Shweta Singh in Uttarakhand. “An additional team of the IT cell, Mumbai police, arrived late night to take Sweta Singh to Mumbai,” said Mamta Bohra, SP (city), Rudrapur.
Engineering student Vishal Jha was arrested in Bengaluru in connection with the case on Monday and later brought to Mumbai. The Mumbai cyber police station has also registered a case against the app’s unidentified developers and Twitter handles which promoted it.
The police will also probe whether there were any attempts to concoct religious tension in Punjab where elections are due this year, he said.
Mumbai police produced Vishal Kumar Jha before the Bandra metropolitan magistrate’s court here on Tuesday and sought his custody for ten days.
The court remanded him in police custody till January 10.
It also granted the police permission to carry out searches at his house in Bengaluru.
While seeking his custody, the police told the court that after the suspect detained in Uttarakhand (Shweta Singh, later arrested) was brought here and her custody was obtained, the two accused would be questioned together.
“My client Vishal Jha has been falsely implicated in the case. He had no role in the creation of this app or any fake accounts. He is just a student,” his lawyer Dinesh Prajapati told PTI.
Prajapati also denied that Jha knew Shweta.
The Bulli Bai app which is now blocked by GitHub is the second case of this kind of sexual harassment and cyber-bullying targeting women from the minority community.
A similar app and website called ‘Sulli Deals’ had come to light last year.
Amid national outrage, the Delhi Police has sought details from the GitHub platform about the developers of the ‘Bulli Bai’ mobile application and also asked Twitter to block and remove related “offensive contents”.
The police also sought from Twitter information about the account handler who first tweeted about the app.
Leaders from across the political spectrum condemned this cyber-harassment and called for strict action against the culprits.
Terming the matter as “serious”, the Delhi Minorities Commission has issued a notice to Delhi police chief Rakesh Asthana seeking an action-taken report by January 10.
On Tuesday, Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Walse-Patil and Minister of State for Home Satej Patil said strict action will be taken against the culprits.
Satel Patil praised the “prompt action” by the Mumbai police, and said there seemed to be a “much bigger network” behind such coordinated crimes and the city police will unearth the “entire nexus that is enabling hate crimes against women in our country.” PTI
Who are Sweta Singh and Vishal Jha
Mamta Bohra, SP (city), Rudrapur said of Sweta Singh “She had completed her 12th this year and was currently preparing for engineering entrance exams. She got hooked on to social media platforms after she lost her father last year. She is 18 years old and surmised to be the mastermind behind the app. She knew Vishal Jha who was an engineering student in Bengaluru.
Mumbai police had earlier arrested a 21-year-old engineering student, Vishal Jha, in connection with the case from Bengaluru. He was brought to Mumbai yesterday for questioning.
“She (Singh) is the youngest in her family, with two elder sisters and a brother who is the family’s breadwinner,” said Vikram Rathore, SHO at Rudrapur. Divulging more information, SP Bohra said, “Sweta was in touch with the Bengaluru man. She was connected with people behind the website for the past six months. They follow the same ideology that has led to this hate crime. She was continuously posting hate comments. Her handle on Twitter, which goes by ‘jattkhalsa07’, was involved in the crime of posting with wrong intentions objectionable photos of several celebrities and social media activists.
The silence of the right-wing politicians could almost endorse their approval of the vile app and acts.
What is Sulli Bulli App
The app targets Muslim women with a powerful political and social presence on Social Media, particularly Twitter, abuses and harasses them with doctored pictures and puts them up for “auction” online. ” The ‘Bulli Bai’ case has erupted six months after ‘Sulli Deals’ created a social media storm. Both the names are derogatory terms.
GitHub had provided space to Sulli Deals and this time, too, the offending app was created on the same site. After a national uproar, GitHub later removed the user from its hosting platform.
“The matter came to light on January 1 when several Muslim women found themselves being “auctioned” on the app hosted by GitHub. Many of the photographs of the women were doctored. The app was also being promoted by a Twitter handle with the name @bullibai, with the display picture of a Khalistani supporter. Many of the targets included women, of all ages, vocal on burning political and social issues. Prominent journalists, activists, and lawyers were among those who featured in the app.
Several opposition leaders, including Congress Party’s Rahul Gandhi strongly and asked for action.
Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi, has taken a personal pursuit on the matter ensuring action was taken has spoken out on the issue, urging the government to crack down on the platform and bring those behind it to justice.
Veteran screenwriter Javed Akhtar said he was “appalled” with everyone’s silence over the harassment of Muslim women. Mumbai police have registered a case under sections 153A (promoting disharmony), 153B (publishing wrong appeal), 295A (defiling place of worship), 509 (insult to modesty of women), 500 (defamation), and 453D (stalking) of the IPC and sections of the IT Act.
Bulli Bai app case: The targets included Muslim women who had a powerful presence on Twitter, vocal on political and social issues. An engineering student has been arrested in the Bulli Bai case in which Muslim women vocal on political social issues were put on an online ‘auction’. An 18-year-old woman, Shweta Singh, from Uttarakhand who is suspected to be the main accused in the case has also been detained by the police. Mumbai Police arrested Vishal Jha in Bengaluru. He was brought to Mumbai on Monday and is now being questioned. He has been sent to police custody till January 10.
The woman is also being questioned now. Police said the arrested youth is a co-accused in the matter and was in touch with the woman.
The matter came to light on January 1 as several Muslim women found themselves on ‘auction’ on the vile app. The app hosted by the GitHub platform had used their photographs, many of them doctored.
The targets included women vocal on burning political and social issues, spanning age groups. Prominent journalists, activists, and lawyers were among those listed for ‘auction’ in the disgusting app.
#WATCH 'Bulli Bai' app case accused Vishal Kumar produced before Mumbai's Bandra Court pic.twitter.com/YhyAZjkLng — ANI (@ANI) January 4, 2022
Earlier: MP Priyanka Chaturvedi ‘Bulli Bai’ Emerged Due To Lack Of Action Earlier: MP Priyanka Chaturvedi The egregious app appeared to be a clone of ‘Sulli Deals’, which had triggered a row last year by offering users a ‘sulli’ – an insulting term used by right-wing trolls for Muslim women. That too was hosted by GitHub.
In just 2 days, Mumbai Police have arrested a man linked to #BulliBaiApp But even after 6 months, Shah's Delhi Police haven't arrested a single person even though many behind the #SulliDeals harassment are known. Shame on Modi & Shah for what they have turned India into. — Srivatsa (@srivatsayb) January 3, 2022
This was the first 'Hindu Trad' account to have tweeted pics of Pakistani women in June 14th. Later they added 80+ Indian Muslim women in July 4th. When there was no action against these Trad accounts, They did that again against 100 Muslim Women on Dec 31. #SulliDeals https://t.co/5YBrYnjROK pic.twitter.com/voOEU0WfAE — Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) January 4, 2022
And the only woman MP to have stood by women in #SulliDeals and then #BulliBai harassment Kudos to @priyankac19 💓👏 So proud to know her https://t.co/NfWT7M70yg pic.twitter.com/FeXYnIltrT — Sakshi Joshi (@sakshijoshii) January 4, 2022
Some of the perpetrators have been suspended from Twitter and Team Saath Official, a handle that deals with online trolls tweeted, “
One of the perpetrators of #BulliDeals, @bullibai_ has been suspended by @Twitter upon reporting. Let’s keep it going for @sage0x11 and @jattkhalsa7. pic.twitter.com/iKwTvy9Q0l — Team Saath Official🤝 (@TeamSaath) January 1, 2022
Unfortunately, the BJP women’s political wing maintained a stoic silence on the Bulli Sulli Deals and were heavily criticized for this. In fact, some are saying their silence validates the Sulli Bulli Deals BJP approved and they will permit any monstrosities to happen to women as do not appear to be guardians of women. There have been other instances where the BJP women’s wing maintained silence.
Women TV anchors mum on #BulliDeals are showcasing their conscience. Save your ire for Mrs Irani who is mandated to protect women & is mum on #BulliDeals Irani thinks her tax payer funded job is to attack Rahul Gandhi — Swati Chaturvedi (@bainjal) January 4, 2022
They screams from newsrooms against opposition but even being women, No Debate, No primetime on harrassment against women#SulliDeals #BulliDeals Shameless journalism, Shameless journalists 😐 pic.twitter.com/qdsmr2DgIl — Shubhra (@shubhshaurya1) January 4, 2022
IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has said the GitHub user behind the app had been blocked and “further action” was being coordinated. Mumbai police have registered a case, Delhi Police is looking into the matter and the Delhi Commission for Women has issued a notice to police officers.
Netizens commented that the Sulli Bulli deals were planned to blame “Khalistanis” where the IT Cell thought #BulliDeals would be a great opportunity to defame Sikhs and Muslims. Everything was planned to perfection. But no one expected the Mumbai Police to rise up to the occasion and nab the actual criminals. Mumbai Police are being applauded to the level of the new Scotland Yard in India. With CBI under the government, no one feels safe anymore to ask them for a probe because it will be preferential or deferential.
As celebrated journalist Ravish Kumar said, The politics of hate will convert today’s children into tomorrow’s murderers”.
As the UN said, ” “Genocide is a process. The Holocaust did not start with the gas chambers. It started with hate speech.” Are politicians taking it seriously enough?
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