'Bulli Bai' controversy: Arrested woman, considered mastermind behind app, is only 18 years old

An 18-year-old woman has been taken into custody by Mumbai Police, in connection with the 'Bulli Bai' app case. The procedure is underway for her transit remand at Rudrapur police station, the Uttarakhand Police Headquarters said

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Mumbai police, on Tuesday (January 4), detained a woman in Uttarakhand believed to be the mastermind behind the 'Bulli Bai' app, an app targetting Muslim women. Now it has come to light that woman is only a teenager.

According to ANI, an 18-year-old woman has been taken into custody by Mumbai Police, in connection with the 'Bulli Bai' app case. The procedure is underway for her transit remand at Rudrapur police station, the Uttarakhand Police Headquarters were quoted. 

Earlier, a police official had said, "A woman has been detained by the cyber cell of Mumbai Police in Uttarakhand. Seems like is the main mastermind behind the app. She will be presented before a court in Uttarakhand for transit remand. After obtaining the transit remand, she will be brought to Mumbai."

Tuesday's arrest comes after, a 21-year-old civil engineering student, Vishal Kumar was arrested by Mumbai Police on Tuesday after questioning for several hours."The detained woman and the arrested man became friends via social media site - Instagram. The racket behind the app includes many more people," said the official. "Vishal changed his name on December 31. He took up a name related to the Sikh community," the official added.

The controversy surrounding the 'Bulli Bai' popped up on January 1 after some influential women active on the social media, especially from the Muslim community, complained that their doctored photos were uploaded for sale online on the Github hosting platform. The investigation conducted by the Cyber cell of Mumbai and Delhi Police found that hundreds of Muslim women were listed for "auction" on the app with photographs sourced without permission and doctored. 

The latest controversy came six months after the "Sulli Deals" issue. Github had provided space to Sulli Deals and this time too, the offending app was created on the platform. After the controversy, Github had removed the user from its hosting platform. But by then, Bulli Bai had sparked a nationwide controversy. The app was also being promoted by a Twitter handle with the name @bullibai. This Twitter handle was endorsing the Bulli Bai app saying the women can be booked from the app. 

Shiv Sena leader and Rajya Sabha member Priyanka Chaturvedi wrote to Mumbai Police after which the case was lodged. A case in this connection was also lodged by Delhi Police. When Sulli Deal controversy came up appeared, two FIRs were lodged against unknown persons, but the culprits behind it were never traced or arrested.