The cybercrime police in Mumbai arrested a woman on Tuesday, believed to be the main suspect involved with an online application called Bulli Bali, which was used to auction Muslim women publicly on the internet. A day earlier, they arrested a 21-year-old man, whose name was not disclosed, who studies Information Technology and hails from Bengaluru in southern India. The arrested woman is accused of sharing photos of 100 Muslim women, implying that each of them was up for sale in a public auction.
The cyber police had previously filed a preliminary report against unknown individuals following complaints that photos of Muslim women were uploaded on an application used by a platform known as GitHub to sell them individually in an online auction, as reported by "Al Arabiya.net" citing The New Indian Express, an English-language newspaper in India. Agencies reported that the platform's administrators deleted the "Bulli Bali" application after deactivating it due to severe criticism of its content and the outrage it caused.
The application featured images of several Muslim journalists and activists, as well as a famous actress, without any of their consent, alongside the word "for sale," making it appear as if there was a genuine public auction for the highest bidder. This is the second instance of harassment of Muslim women in India in this manner. The first case involved a website called Sulli Deals last year, which shared real photos of over 80 Muslim women on social media, using the term "deals of the day" to suggest that one or more could be sold. It later became clear that there was no real intent for an actual sale, and the purpose was merely to insult Muslim women.
Despite more than six months passing since the police investigation into the first incident, it has yielded no results or arrests of those involved, unlike the new situation. Regarding this case, the police stated that they have opened investigations into "Bulli Bali" in at least three states following complaints received from affected Muslim women.
