Mumbai cyber cell links Sulli Deals, Bulli Bai attacks

The Mumbai cyber cell has prima facie established the link between Bulli Bai and Sulli Deals, the applications which were hosted on GitHub, in the fake online Muslim women auction case. A police officer told mid-day that the accused, Vishal Kumar Jha, was a follower of the Sulli Deals app which stoked controversy last year when for the first time photos of prominent vocal Muslim women were put up for auction on a social media platform by bigot misogynists.

But while the Mumbai police cracked the case, the alleged inaction of Delhi police in the sensitive matter has enraged the victims. Speaking about the case, a Mumbai police officer said, "Jha followed the Sulli Deals app which was later pulled down after victims started to register police cases in Delhi and Noida. This time, Jha tweeted the Bulli Bai app on Twitter handles which were created by 18-year-old Shweta Singh, who is in transit remand in Uttarakhand."

Twitter handles identified

The investigators in Mumbai are not exploring the controversial contents of Sulli Deals, as the cases are beyond their jurisdiction. Addressing a press conference, Mumbai police commissioner Hemant Nagrale said on Wednesday, "We are investigating the Bulli Bai app case which is registered with us. We can't probe the Sulli Deals cases which are registered in other states."

Those behind the creation of Bulli Bai will be arrested, said Hemant Nagrale, Mumbai police commissioner

The cyber cell identified six Twitter handles including @bullibai_, @sage0x11, @jatkhalsa7, @wannabesigmaf, @jatkhalsa, @sikh_khalsa11 which were used to bombard the pictures of prominent Muslim women on social media." "We are conducting a detailed investigation into the case and have learnt that these accused have some links with both the controversial apps - Sulli Deals and Bulli Bai. If cops of other states need help in the Sulli Deals cases registered with them, we will fully cooperate," said a senior police officer.

The police have arrested three accused including Jha, Singh and Mayank Rawat, 21. All the accused are engineering students. The Mumbai police is yet to trace the mastermind who created the application to target victims. "We are yet to identify the person who created the Bulli Bai application. Singh created the twitter handles and Jha, Rawat uploaded the application on the above twitter handles," said the officer.

The investigators are yet to establish if the three accused gained financial benefit for uploading the application on Twitter to make it viral. Sources in the crime branch told mid-day that the mastermind could be the creator of Twitter handle @toxture which is now deleted. The cyber cell is retrieving the details of @toxture from twitter, said the source.

Link to saffron brigade?

One of the three arrested is suspected to have a link with the saffron brigade. On Wednesday, the Mumbai police issued a press note in which they revealed that Jha runs a YouTube channel called ‘Tavasya Vats'. While scanning the channel, mid-day learnt that nearly 25,000 viewers have subscribed to it. One of the videos uploaded on the channel is of the Babri mosque demolition. In another video, Jha has uploaded the video of BJP Parliamentarian Tejasvi Surya. "The user also used hashtags including #JaiShreeRam #RamMandir #BabriDemolition #MaiTera, #BJP.

The cyber cell of Mumbai police has written to GitHub to retrieve details of the person who created the controversial application. "Those who are behind the creation of Bulli Bai will be arrested," said Nagrale. "A particular community has been defamed by this app. The intention was to create hatred about them. We took serious cognisance because it's a very heinous crime against women," said Nagrale, who added that the applications were uploaded on Twitter on December 31. All such controversial Twitter handles have been suspended. Mumbai police are likely to reach out to Delhi police with the details they have found regarding the Sulli deals. Bulli bai was created after Sulli deal app was terminated from GitHub.

‘Cops should have acted swiftly'

The victims of Sulli Deals app are upset as the cops in Delhi and Noida allegedly did not even trace the accused. The cyber cell of Mumbai police claims to have cracked the case within 24-hrs of its registration but the mastermind behind the Bulli Bai is still to be nabbed. A victim told mid-day, "Muslim women are often addressed as ‘Mulli' to derogate them. Since the crooks knew that the social media accounts or applications will be suspended if opened with a word like ‘Mulli', they named the app Sulli Deals to auction prominent Muslim women. The application Bulli Bai was made so scores of Muslim women could be ‘sold' as maids. This is really disgusting. The Delhi cops should have acted swiftly six months ago but they did nothing."