'Sulli Deals' app creator arrested from Indore
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In the first arrest made in the case of 'Sulli Deals', an app designed to host doctored photos of Muslim women and 'auction' them online, a Madhya Pradesh man has been arrested and charged as the mastermind behind the app which sparked controversy last year.
Delhi Police nabbed 26 year-old Aumkareshwar Thakur aka Om Thakur from Indore today. The arrest was carried out in conjunction with the Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) of Delhi Police in Madhya Pradesh's Indore.
"Om Thakur has been arrested from Indore. He is the main mastermind behind the Sulli deal app case," said KPS Malhotra, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations Unit, Delhi Police Special Cell to NDTV.
Thakur, 26, did his BCA from IPS Academy in Indore and is a resident of Newyork City Township, they said. Police said that Thakur developed the code for the 'Sulli Deals' on GitHub and shared the app on Twitter. The app has since been deleted and blocked from GitHub. An FIR was filed last year by police in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh but no headway was made until this year, when the creators of the similar Bulli Bai app were arrested.
Testimony from Niraj Bishnoi, the main accused in the Bulli Bai app creation case, was crucial in netting the creators of the Sulli Deals app, police said. Bishnoi claimed he was in contact with the team behind Sulli Deals. Thakur allegedly used the Twitter handle @gangescion to popularise the app and was an active member of a group called "Trade Mahasabha" that would often discuss how to troll Muslim women.
Police are now investigating his gadgets and the now deleted accounts.
Like Thakur, Bishnoi and the other four accused in the Bully Bai case allegedly created an app featuring the doctored photos and details of prominent Muslim women. An FIR was filed against the creators of the app after she found her own photos and details up on display, listed as "Bai of the Day".
Shweta Singh, 18; Vishal Jha, 21, from Bengaluru; Niraj Bishnoi, 20, from Assam; and Mayank Rawat, 21, from Uttarakhand are the main suspects in the case with Niraj pegged as the app's creator and Shweta as the mastermind.