A case has been registered by Cyber Police in Delhi following a complaint by a journalist, that photos of hundreds of Muslim women were uploaded on a group called ‘Bulli Bai’.
The journalist, who is one of the women named in the app, took to Twitter informing that her complaint has been registered and a case under IPC sections 153A (Promoting enmity on grounds of religion etc), 153B (Imputations prejudicial to national-integration), 354A & 509 for sexual harassment has been filed.
The journalist has claimed that a group called ‘Bulli Bai’ was created like ‘Sulli Deals’ on GitHub, which would collect photos of Muslim women from their social media accounts and encourage people to participate in their “auction”.
Several women, whose photos were posted on the group, took to social media to complain to the police.
In a tweet late on Saturday night, India’s information and technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said: “GitHub confirmed blocking the user this morning itself.
“CERT [Computer Emergency Response Team, an office under his ministry] and Police authorities are coordinating further action,” he added.
Maharashtra Information and Technology Minister Satej Patil had said on Saturday that an FIR was being lodged in the matter. He said that the Maharashtra Cyber Police and Mumbai Cyber Cell have started an inquiry into the case.
“Digital platforms like these are rife with misogyny and communal hatred aimed at women,” he said on Twitter. “This is very disturbing and shameful.”
The application has been condemned by social media users. This is the second time in a span of a year that such an app has been created.
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi condemned the incident in a tweet. “Humiliation of women and communal hatred will only stop when we raise our voice against them unitedly,” he said.
Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi said that she had written to the information technology minister in July, when “sulli deals” had posted the images of Muslim women. She claimed that she received a response in November, in which it was said that the sites were blocked.
“But action needs to be taken on people who make these sites,” she said. “Since no action was taken, we again saw an example of such a site on January 1.”