Indian police have arrested a man suspected of being behind a bid for a prominent Muslim woman on line fake. The case has been in the spotlight as it sparked outrage across the country.
Maharashtra state’s top technology affairs official Satej Patil said on Monday evening (3/1) that Mumbai police cyber unit arrested a 21-year-old engineering student from the city of Bengaluru in the neighboring state of Karnataka and filed a complaint against him. Police did not release the identity of the suspect and it was unclear whether the man created the auction site.
Photos of more than 100 prominent Indian Muslim women, including journalists, activists, movie stars and artists, were posted last weekend without their permission on the website for auction. Women featured on the website also include the mother of a missing Indian student and Pakistani Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai.
The website, dubbed “Bulli Bai”, a derogatory term for Indian Muslim women, was blocked after running for 24 hours. Although no actual sale was involved, the Muslim women listed on the website said the auction was meant to embarrass them. Many of the women on the auction list are notoriously opposed to India’s growing Hindu nationalism and some of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s policies.
This website was created on GitHub, a coding platform based in San Francisco. A GitHub spokesperson said it removed the account from the website on its platform and would cooperate with investigating authorities.
The fake auction sparked outrage on Twitter after complaints were filed by victims. Women’s rights groups and opposition party politicians urge ruling Bharatiya Janata party to take action against harassment on line against these Muslim women and urged Indian Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to take decisive action.
Police in at least three states said they had opened an investigation into the incident and filed criminal complaints against the website developer, based on complaints from the targeted women.
This is not the first time that Muslim women have been featured on fake auction sites. Last year in June, a similar website called “Sulli Deals”, which is also a derogatory slang term for Muslim women, was created for the same purpose. [ab/uh]
