DCW notice to cops over 'callous attitude' in 'SulliDeals', 'BulliBai' harassment cases

New Delhi: Even as the Mumbai Police managed to corner the first suspect in the targetted social media attack against influential Muslim women — the second such attack in six months, the Delhi Police on Monday said that they have sought details of suspects from Twitter and GitHub who were found associated with the "BulliBai" app.

Months after the SulliDeals case, where over 80 Muslim women's pictures were used to "auction" them — an identical application surfaced on New Year's Eve — this time targetting over 100 Muslim women across the country — including journalists, activists, and other prominent members of society who speak their mind on social media.

After failing to make any arrests in the SulliDeals matter, the Delhi Commission for Women took cognizance of the newest attack and sent a notice to the Delhi Police asking the concerned officers to appear before it later this week in connection with both the probes. The DCW, in a statement, said it has taken suo motu cognisance of the case and has asked the Delhi Police to provide a list of people arrested in both of these cases.

The commission said non-arrest of culprits in such a serious matter is appalling and that this "callous attitude of the law enforcement agency has emboldened the culprits and others who are continuing to sell women and girls online".

"In that matter (SulliDeals), while the Delhi Police had registered an FIR in July last year after DCW's intervention, it is yet to make any arrests," it said.

The DCW has also sought details of action taken against the 'GitHub' app by the Delhi Police along with steps taken in preventing such platforms from uploading "derogatory" and "illegal" content in the future. "The Delhi Police has also been asked to inform whether any guidelines with respect to such incidents have been formed by them," the commission said.

The police have been directed to appear before the commission on January 6 with the complete case files of both matters.

Meanwhile, the police said that they have asked Twitter to block and remove on the microblogging platform any "offensive content" shared from the 'Bulli Bai' app'. They added that GitHub had blocked the concerned user who had created the application and Twitter has been asked to provide information on the accounts that had first started posting this content on their platform.

However, the police are yet to track the creator's IP address because the American company has asked the authorities to approach it with a court order before releasing the information.

Significantly, other than the SulliDeals and now the BulliBai cases, which are yet to see concrete action from the Delhi Police, the police were asked to register a case for a similar attack in August last year — which has been part of the series of targetted social media attacks against Muslim women in the last few months.

The DCW had written to the police about several men, including one Rambhakt Gopal, known for waving a gun at an anti-CAA protest site, posting derogatory messages against Muslim women. The Delhi Police had then tracked down one of the accused, Kunal Sharma, found that he was mentally unstable, following which he was sent to IHBAS and the case closed.