'Bulli Bai' Case: 21-Year-Old 'Creator' Of Auction App Arrested From Assam

A 21-year-old man, identified as the alleged Bulli Bai app creator, was arrested Thursday in Assam by the Delhi police, as per reports. Named Neeraj Bishnoi, the man is said to have masterminded the attack on a group of Muslim women who were put up for 'auction' on an app hosted by open-source platform GitHub.

The harassment was first flagged on January 1 with First Information Reports (FIRs) filed in Delhi and Mumbai following complaints by women. Over the week, the Mumbai police made three arrests in the case. All suspects so far are youths falling in the age group between 18 and 21.

The first to be arrested was 21-year-old Vishal Jha, an engineering student from Bengaluru. Others consequently arrested were 18-year-old Shweta Singh and 21-year-old Mayank Rawat, both from Uttarakhand. More here.

Suggested Reading: “Are We Safe In This Country?” India’s Muslim Women Ask Amid ‘Bulli Bai’ Harassment

The Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) unit of the Delhi police made Bishnoi's arrest and the suspect is being processed to be brought to the national capital. KPS Malhotra, DCP of Delhi police IFSO, was quoted saying by ANI that Bishnoi is "the main conspirator & creator of 'Bulli Bai' on GitHub & the main Twitter account holder of the app."

As per reports, Bishnoi is a second-year student of B Tech at Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), Bhopal.

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Earlier, Maharashtra minister Satej Patel relayed to the media that there was a group of people behind the functions of the sinister app that targeted communal and sexual harassment at Muslim women in the country. He added that other suspects in the case were from other parts of India. Read here.

The 'Bulli Bai' harassment is not the first of its kind to surface on the internet. Through 2020, Muslim women were similarly 'auctioned' online at least thrice - first on a YouTube livestream, then on a GitHub app called 'Sulli Deals,' and further in a Clubhouse chat room. Survivors told us that despite complaints, no major action was taken in the previous cases.