The Delhi Police on Sunday arrested Aumkareshwar Thakur, who allegedly created an app called “Sulli Deals” on which Muslim women were put for “online auction” last year, ANI reported. Thakur was arrested from Madhya Pradesh’s Indore city and is being questioned by the police.
“Sulli” is a derogatory term used to refer to Muslim women. The “Sulli Deals” app was called out on social media after it targeted Muslim women in July. The Delhi Police had filed a first information report on the matter but had made no arrest in the six months since then.
Thakur is the first person to be arrested in the case. The 26-year-old is a resident of the New York City Township in Indore and has completed a Bachelor of Computer Applications course from the city’s Indore Professional Studies Academy, according to PTI.
The city’s police chief, Harinarayanchari Mishra, told the news agency that the Delhi Police have not shared any official information about the matter with the Indore Police yet. “We have come to know only from the media about the arrest of Thakur from Indore by Delhi Police,” Mishra said.
On Sunday, KPS Malhotra, the deputy commissioner of police of the Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations of Delhi Police’s Special Cell, said that Thakur was a member of a group on Twitter that was made with the intention of online trolling of Muslim women, ANI reported.
“He had developed the code on GitHub,” Malhotra said, according to PTI. “The access of GitHub was with all the members of the group. He had shared the app on his Twitter account. The photos of the Muslim women were uploaded by the group members.”
Meanwhile, Thakur’s father Akhilesh Thakur claimed that he did not know anything about the app and that his son was being framed, PTI reported. He said that on Saturday afternoon, two Delhi Police personnel came to his home in plain clothes and took custody of Aumkareshwar Thakur.
Akhilesh Thakur said that the police took his son to Delhi by a flight on Saturday evening. He added that he was in the neighbouring district of Ujjain when the police came to his home.
Online targeting of Muslim women
On January 1, a similar app called “Bulli Bai” – another derogatory term used to target Muslim women – emerged. Four persons, including this app’s alleged creator, have been arrested in the case.
In both cases, images of hundreds of Muslim women were downloaded and posted on the apps and uploaded on the repository hosting service GitHub. Both the apps have been taken down by the platform after outrage on social media.
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