Clubhouse app case: Man arrested for starting chat room where Muslim women were verbally abused

The Delhi Police have arrested a man from Uttar Pradesh’s Lucknow city in a case related to derogatory comments against Muslim women on the audio chat app Clubhouse, PTI reported on Saturday.

The accused person, Rahul Kapoor (18), claimed that he created the chat room in which the comments were made on the directions of a person called “Sallos”, said Deputy Commissioner of Police, Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations, KPS Malhotra.

Kapoor told the police that he subsequently gave the chat room’s moderator key to “Sallos”, Malhotra said.

The 18-year-old had registered himself on Clubhouse as “Bismillah”, Malhotra told ANI.

Clubhouse is a social audio app, where members can participate and listen in on chat sessions and discussions based on their topics of interest. Kapoor had allegedly created the chatroom where a conversation on the topic, “Muslim gals are more beautiful than Hindu gals” took place.

On Thursday, the Mumbai Police arrested three persons from Haryana for allegedly making derogatory comments about Muslim women on the app.

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 Mumbai Police said.

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.