Bulli Bai Case: 'Poor' U'khand Woman Created App to 'Auction' Muslim Women Online for Money; Engg Student Was a 'Follower'

Mumbai Police Commissioner Hemant Nagrale on Wednesday said that they have arrested three people in connection with the ‘Bulli Bai’ app case. He added that the arrested engineering student, Vishal Kumar Jha (21) from Bengaluru, was a “follower” of the application, but refused to divulge details as ” it will compromise the case”.

“Bulli Bai was created as an application, hosted on the open-source software platform GitHub. Women’s pictures were uploaded here and message that would hurt their sentiments were posted. The app was created on December 31 and then a complaint was filed,” Nagrale said.

He further said that the police analysed the Twitter handles, including that of ‘Bulli Bai’. “Twitter handles were used to promote the application. We found out the followers of this app. Vishal, who was arrested from Bengaluru, was a follower of the app. This app had 5 followers,” the commissioner said, adding that police “cannot give many details as it will compromise the case”.

Nagrale said, “An email ID will be provided. Those who want to give more information can come forward and inform us.”

Mumbai cyber police have arrested Mayank Rawal (21) and Shweta Singh (19) from Uttarakhand, and Vishal Kumar Jha (21) from Bengaluru in connection with the case. Singh is alleged to be the main culprit.

Uttarakhand DGP Ashok Kumar, however, said that the woman from Rudrapur belongs to a “poor family and her father is not alive”. It seems she got involved in such activities for money, he added.

The Mumbai police had registered a First Information Report (FIR) against unidentified persons following complaints that doctored photographs of hundreds of Muslim women were uploaded for auction’ on the app called ‘Bulli Bai’.

While there was no actual ‘auction’ or ‘sale’, the purpose of the app seemed to be to humiliate and intimidate the targeted women, many of whom are active social media users. The Mumbai cyber police station has also registered a case against the app’s unidentified developers and Twitter handles which promoted it.

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