Indian Police arrest 3 for alleged ‘online auction’ of women

The Indian police on Wednesday arrested three people for alleged ties to an app that prompted complaints because it disparaged Muslim women by sharing images of more than 100 of them for a fake online auction.

The three people arrested were two men, aged 21 and a woman, 19, in the state of Uttarkhand and in the city of Bengaluru, the country’s information technology hub, Mumbai Police commissioner Hemant Nagrale said during a news conference.

“The photographs of several women who are well-established and well-regarded in the community were uploaded on the Bulli Bai app and Twitter account with objectionable messages,” Nagrale said.

“We began the investigation on Sunday, a day after one of the women targeted by the app lodged a complaint with us”

Nagrale said he could not share more details as the matter was sensitive.

The Bulli Bai app appeared on the GitHub open source software development platform on Saturday, but was taken down hours later.

Indian Information and Technology Minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw, said the platform had blocked the user and an emergency response team from his ministry was coordinating with the police on further action.

Several prominent Muslim women including journalists, a pilot and a politician were among the 100 plus women who found their photos on the website alongside degrading text that implied they were for sale, the Indian Express newspaper reported.

Six months earlier, a similar website called Sulli Deals, also on GitHub, had included photographs and profiles of more than 80 Muslim women.

There were no real sales. The words “sulli” and “bulli” are derogatory slang used to refer to Muslim women by Hindu right-wingers.

Some of women who appeared on the sites had in the past made critical statements on the rise of Hindu nationalism and the treatment of minorities in India.

Nagrale said investigations were looking into who made the app and what was the motive behind it. He did not rule out more arrests.

There were several complaints about the Sulli Deals app, which was also taken down within days of complaints, but no arrests have been made.