Suspects held after fake online sale of Indian Muslim women

NEW DELHI — Police successful India person detained a antheral and a pistillate alleged to beryllium progressive successful the offering for merchantability of salient Muslim women connected a fake online auction website, according to authorities officials, successful a lawsuit that has sparked outrage crossed the country.

The cyber portion of the Mumbai Police detained the 2 suspects pursuing a ailment from 1 of the targeted woman. It wasn’t wide whether the 2 created the website.

Police brought charges against the man, a 21-year-old engineering student, and said they were investigating the pistillate further.

Photographs of much than 100 salient Indian Muslim women, including journalists, activists, movie stars and artists, were displayed past play without their support connected a website and enactment up for fake auction. The women listed connected the website besides included the 65-year-old parent of a disappeared Indian pupil and Pakistani Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai.

The website, which was taken down wrong 24 hours, was called “Bulli Bai,” a derogatory slang word for Indian Muslims. Though determination was nary existent merchantability involved, the Muslim women listed connected the website said the auction was intended to humiliate them, galore of whom person been vocal astir rising Hindu nationalism successful India and immoderate of the policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The website was hosted connected GitHub, a San Francisco-based coding platform. A institution spokesperson said GitHub had taken down the idiosyncratic relationship that had hosted the website connected its platform, and that it would cooperate with investigating authorities.

The fake auction unleashed outrage connected Twitter aft complaints from the victims, with respective women posting screenshots aft uncovering their photos listed connected the website. Women rights groups and politicians from absorption parties urged the governing Bharatiya Janata Party to instrumentality enactment against online harassment of Muslim women, prompting Indian exertion curate Ashwini Vaishnaw to committedness strict measures.

Police successful astatine slightest 3 states said they person opened investigations into the incidental and filed transgression complaints against developers of the website, based connected the complaints of the targeted women.

This is not the archetypal clip Muslim women were listed connected a fake auction website. Last June, a akin website called “Sulli Deals,” besides a derogatory word for Muslim women, was created for the aforesaid purpose. That website remained online for weeks and was lone taken down by authorities aft complaints from victims. Police opened an probe into that case, but nary 1 was arrested.

Indian women, peculiarly Muslims, person often recovered themselves the people of hatred and maltreatment connected societal media platforms, including Twitter. Outspoken Muslim women, including journalists and activists and those captious of Modi and his Hindu nationalist party, person received threats of rape and violence.

Many of the victims accidental the fake auction website is the latest effort to intimidate them.

Khadija Khan, a lawyer and writer with Bar & Bench website, said she received a Twitter notification connected New Year’s Eve that informed her she was tagged successful a tweet that displayed her representation arsenic portion of the fake auction. The relationship has since been suspended.

Khan’s archetypal absorption was to study the tweet and artifact the user, dismissing it arsenic spam. But she soon received messages from her friends and colleagues who confirmed to her that she was besides connected the list.

“My archetypal absorption was indifference and dismissal due to the fact that we are utilized to regular trolling but by the adjacent day, it had turned into daze and horror. Realizing what it really was gave maine nightmares,” Khan said.

Khan recovered enactment from her household and colleagues, but the incidental near her shaken.

“It’s a connection that ‘Look! We tin brazenly humiliate and merchantability Muslim women online and inactive spell scot escaped portion they are inactive vying for immoderate modicum of justice,’” Khan said.