GitHub apps shocker: Teenager detained by cyber cell

Mumbai: The cyber cell of Mumbai police which is probing the ‘Bulli Bai’ app case has detained a 19-year-old woman, believed to be the main culprit, from Uttarakhand and arrested an engineering student from Bengaluru, officials said on Tuesday.

Vishal Kumar Jha (21), the arrested student, and the suspect woman from Uttarakhand allegedly knew each other. A court in Mumbai remanded Jha in police custody till January 10. The city police had registered a First Information Report (FIR) against unidentified persons following complaints that photographs of hundreds of Muslim women were uploaded for ‘auction’ on an app called `Bulli Bai’, hosted on the open-source software platform GitHub. While there was no actual `auction’ or `sale’, the purpose of the app seemed to be to humiliate and intimidate the targeted women, many of whom are active social media users. A team of the Mumbai cyber police has detained the 19-year-old woman in Uttarakhand, an official said here, adding that she seemed to be the main person behind this app. The woman was suspected to be operating multiple accounts related to the app, the official said. She was produced before a court in Uttarakhand for transit remand, and then be brought to Mumbai, he said.

The Mumbai cyber police station has also registered a case against the app’s unidentified developers and Twitter handles which promoted it. —(PTI)