Mastermind of 'Sulli Deals' App Listing Muslim Women for Auction Arrested in India

On 4 July 2021, photos of over 90 Indian Muslim women, including prominent journalists, activists, analysts, artists, and researchers, were stolen from their social media accounts and uploaded on the "Sulli Deals" app. Six months later, a similar incident took place on a "Bulli Bai" app, sparking a social media uproar.

The Special Cell of Delhi Police on Sunday arrested the creator and mastermind of the ‘Sulli Deals’ mobile app, Aumkareshwar Thakur, 25, in Indore, a city in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, for allegedly targeting Muslim women and auctioning them online as the "deal of the day".

After six months, the ‘Sulli Deals’ scandal once again made headlines last week, after a similar app, 'Bulli Bai', targeted hundreds of Muslim women. The affected women took to social media, demanding strict action against those responsible.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) KPS Malhotra of Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO), said that Aumkareshwar Thakur was arrested after he admitted during preliminary interrogation that he was a member of a group on Twitter where the idea to defame Muslim women was shared.

The officer told Indian media that Thakur is the main creator of the app who developed the code on the GitHub hosting platform and gave all members of the group access to the code. He also made posts about the app on his Twitter account.

Aumkareshwar Thakur, #SulliDeals app creator and mastermind arrested from Indore. He was the member of Trad-Group on Twitter made to troll Muslim women: DCP KPS Malhotra, Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO), Delhi Police Special Cell pic.twitter.com/Eb55Kqrwai

— ANI (@ANI) January 9, 2022

Thakur entered the cross hairs of the Delhi police after they arrested ‘Bulli Bai’ app creator Niraj Bishnoi, 21, on 6 January in the state of Assam.

Bishnoi, who confessed to being a hacker since the age of 15 and has hacked various websites of schools and universities in India as well as Pakistan, revealed that he was in touch with the creator of 'Sulli Deals'.

Accused Niraj Bishnoi has inclination towards a gaming character of Japan animation namely GIYU. He had created various Twitter handles using the word GIYU. He had created the account with word GIYU, through which he had challenged the law enforcement agencies to nab him: IFSO

— ANI (@ANI) January 8, 2022

Police told Indian media that Bishnoi is highly radicalised. He accepted responsibility for his crime and has "no remorse".

This is the person behind #BulliBaiApp Niraj Bishnoi. Police claims they've recovered the source code and other forensics evidence from his laptop & phone.
Pic via - @mahendermanral pic.twitter.com/CGUW3mQNC8

— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) January 6, 2022

The Mumbai Cyber Police, who are also investigating the Bulli Bai case, earlier arrested an engineering student named Vishal Kumar Jha, 21, in Bengaluru, Karnataka state; as well as a 19-year-old girl, Shweta Singh, and a science student named Mayank Rawal, 21, in the state of Uttarakhand.