The Mumbai Police on Thursday arrested three persons from Haryana for making allegedly derogatory comments on Muslim women on the audio chat app Clubhouse, ANI reported.
“We have registered a case against a vulgar Clubhouse app chat and arrested one person from Karnal, Haryana and is taken to three days SIT remand,” said Milind Bharambe, the joint commissioner of police crime (crime), ANI reported. “Two other accused are picked up from Faridabad and the process for their transit remand is in progress.”
The accused persons Akash Suyal (19), Jaishnav Kakkar (21) and Yash Parashar (22) have been charged under Indian Penal Code sections that provide punishment for promoting enmity on religious grounds, acts intended to outrage religious feelings, sexual harassment and stalking, the police said according to ANI. They have also been charged under the Information Technology Act, 2000.
Clubhouse is a social audio app, where members can participate and listen in on chat sessions and discussions based on their topics of interest.
Suyal, Kakkar and Parashar allegedly participated in the online conversation on the topic, “Muslim gals are more beautiful than Hindu gals”.
The Delhi Commission For Women, which had brought up the matter to light, had on Tuesday said that the participants were “clearly heard making obscene, vulgar and defamatory remarks over women and girls especially from the Muslim community”.
Hours after the panel’s report, the Delhi Police had filed a first information report against several unknown people.
On Thursday, Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi praised the Mumbai Police for making arrests in the case.
This is the third instance in the last eight months where derogatory remarks have been reported to be posted online against Muslim women.
Earlier, two apps were used to display photos of Muslim women for “online auction”.
The “Sulli Deals” app emerged in July, and “Bulli Bai” on January 1. The apps have been taken down from hosting platform GitHub following outrage on social media. Both “Bulli” and “Sulli” are derogatory terms used to refer to Muslim women.
On January 9, the Delhi Police arrested Aumkareshwar Thakur, who allegedly created the “Sulli Deals” app, from Indore.
In the “Bulli Bai” case, the Delhi Police have arrested Neeraj Bishnoi, allegedly the main conspirator in the case. The Mumbai Police have arrested four more persons in the case – Vishal Kumar Jha, Shweta Singh, Mayank Rawat and Neeraj Singh.
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