New Delhi: Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief Swati Maliwal on Wednesday issued summons to the Delhi Police seeking answers over delay in action in the case related to "Sulli Deals" — an app hosted on GitHub, which was found "auctioning" Muslim women from all walks of life.
After multiple victims reported the application on social media websites, the Delhi Commission for Women took cognizance of the crime and intervened, following which the Delhi Police had registered an FIR to probe the matter. However, weeks later, investigators are no closer to making an arrest. In fact, their probe has been essentially stonewalled by GitHub.
Millennium Post had first reported on July 21 that the investigation had hit a wall after GitHub had refused to supply them with information about the application's creator/s.
In the notice, which was sent to DCP (CyPAD) Anyesh Roy, DCW asked him to appear before the women's commission today (Thursday) and explain the action taken to solve this case.
"DCW has taken suo moto action on media reports of uploading pictures of many Muslim girls on internet platform GitHub without their consent. In this regard, notice was sent on July 7 to your office seeking certain information, " DCW wrote in the notice.
On July 16, a reply was given by Delhi Police to DCW. "However on perusal, the same appears to be incomplete," the commission told police.
The women commission has now asked city police to provide details of whether any accused was identified or arrested and also to provide the details about the steps taken by Delhi Police to arrest the accused. DCW also asked for detailed action taken report and also the current status of the investigation.
A senior officer had earlier told Millennium Post that they have not received any kind of information from GitHub as of now, despite multiple appeals. Photographs of these women were uploaded by an unidentified group on an app called 'Sulli Deals' using GitHub. When asked whether a reminder was sent to GitHub, the official replied that they have sent a reminder but are yet to reply to queries on who was involved in creating the application. Once they give them the reply, the police investigation is expected to move along.
On July 8, Delhi Police said that acting on a complaint received on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal regarding the Sulli Deals mobile application, a case under section 354-A of IPC was registered by the Cyber Crime Unit on July 7.
"As soon as the case was registered, a notice was sent to GitHub to share the relevant details," the official said. But probing cases involving coordination with foreign internet companies, authorities here often face multiple challenges.