Delhi Court Denies Bail To Aumkareshwar Thakur, Accused Of Creating 'Sulli Deals' App On GitHub

A Delhi Court has denied bail to to Aumkareshwar Thakur, who is accused of creating the 'Sulli Deals' app on Github.

Metropolitan Magistrate Vasundhra Chhaunkar said "misuse of technology and the impact of the alleged acts on the larger section of society cannot be reduced to negligible when being compared to the other offences with harsher punishment."

Thakur was reportedly arrested by Delhi Police after Neeraj Bishnoi, alleged to be the creator of Bulli Bail app was questioned by the Police.

It was the case of the prosecution that on the basis of the investigation conducted so far, it was revealed that Thakur was a member of Trad Mahasabha and created logic of the App namely "Sulli Deals" on GitHub. He and other persons had then posted pictures of various Muslim women for online auction.

Furthermore, it was argued that the term Sulli itself is a disrespectful term aimed at insulting Muslim women.

On the other hand, it was argued on behalf of Thakur that sec. 153 A of IPC could not be applied in the matter as there was absence of two groups for promotion of feeling of enmity. It was submitted that there was no reference to the other community in the present FIR.

Accordingly, the Court observed thus:

"The accused had consciously used Tor Browser so that his identity could not be disclosed and various complaints have been received against Sulli deals APP which are pending across India. The investigation is at nascent stage where crucial evidence and further chain of events are yet to be conclusively unearthed."

"Granting bail to the accused at this juncture will prejudice a fair investigation. Therefore, in the opinion of the Court, the accused is not entitled to bail at this stage. On the basis of above observations and reasons, bail application of accused Aumkareshwar Thakur is dismissed."

Recently, a city Court denied bail to Neeraj Bishnoi, a 21 year old arrested from Assam in connection with Bulli Bai App case observing that the act is an "affront to the dignity of the women of particular community and communal harmony of the society".

The Bulli Bai App is similar to the 'Sulli Deals' which also resulted in a controversy last year by offering 'sullis', a derogatory word trolls would use for Muslim women. GitHub was also the host for that App.

The case came to the fore after innumerable prominent Muslim women found themselves up for auction on the App hosted by GitHub. Many women found that their doctored images were put up on the App for "auction."

The women included prominent journalists, social activists and lawyers.

According to an NDTV report, the lady was handling three accounts in the Bulli Bai App. Jha opened an account called Khalsa Supremacist, apparently to make it look like this was a Khalistani attack. Then, on December 31, he changed the names of the accounts to make them sound like they allegedly belonged to a particular community.

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