Arrests made in India over Bulli Bai app insulting Muslim women

Indian police have arrested a 21-year-old man after the launch of an online app that shared pictures of scores of Muslim women in a fake online “auction”, in a case of apparent hatred towards the minority community.

In recent days, several Indian Muslim women said on social media that their pictures had been used without their consent to create an open source app on the GitHub platform.

A senior police official in the western city of Mumbai said that its cyber crime division had also detained a woman in the northern state of Uttarakhand in connection with the incident.

“Both of the accused know each other,” the official said.

The app was called Bulli Bai, a derogatory term to describe Muslim women, and comes just months after a similar app named Sulli Deals was created in July.

Ismat Ara, a journalist targeted by the app, said in a police complaint filed on Sunday that it was an attempt to harass Muslim women.

“The said 'github' is violent, threatening and intending to create a feeling of fear and shame in my mind, as well as in the minds of women in general, and the Muslim community whose women are being targeting in this hateful manner,” said the complaint, which Ara posted on social media.

India's Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that GitHub had confirmed the user who created the app had been blocked.