Indian authorities have made three arrests, including of an 18-year-old girl, in connection to the case involving fake auctioning of prominent Muslim women on an online application which has now been taken down. The case sparked outrage across India where minorities are increasingly under attack from fringe groups and religious extremists as the Hindu nationalist government seems reluctant to take concrete actions. 

Pictures of over 100 prominent Muslim journalists, activists, civil society leaders, and actresses — many of them critics of the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi—appeared on the application for fake auctions. This is the second such attempt in recent months, which sought to target and humiliate women who are critics of the government’s Hindutva politics. 

Vishal Kumar Jha, an engineering student from the southern city of Bengaluru, and Mayank Rawat, also a student from the northern state of Uttarakhand, are the two men arrested in the case. Shweta Singh, the 18-year-old arrested girl, is reportedly the mastermind behind the whole case, reported NDTV. 

"The woman who was arrested from Uttarakhand's Rudrapur in the 'Bulli Bai' app case belongs to a poor family and her father is not alive. It seems she got involved in such activities for money," Ashok Kumar, police chief of Uttrakhand state, was quoted as saying, hinting at a larger conspiracy in the case that has drawn unfavorable attention in global media. 

Cyber Cell of Mumbai Police had started the investigation in the case after one of the victims, whose morphed photographs were also uploaded for an 'auction' on the app, lodged a complaint.

The app was being hosted on the open-source San Francisco-headquartered software platform GitHub, which later took it down, and assured cooperation with authorities in the investigation. The app was called 'Bulli Bai', a derogatory term to describe Muslim women. 

The trend of targeting and trolling women, including celebrities, on social media platforms has been growing in India, helped by the anonymity of social media. Culprits, often encouraged by growing prejudice on religious lines, often fail to face law due to the lack of solid and decisive actions from authorities, which, many allege, is increasingly becoming compromised. 

Earlier on Tuesday, a derogatory Telegram group targeting Hindu women was taken down after the Ministry of Information Technology intervened in the matter. Ashwani Vaishnav, the IT minister, also assured actions in the case. 

There has been increasing targeting of minorities, often on digital mediums, by religious extremists and bigots, actions that have been steadily diminishing the country’s global image of a secular, multi-ethnic, and multi-religious society. 

A few months back, a similar platform, the Sulli Deal, came to light where women journalists critical of the government were being 'auctioned' online.  

Many civil society leaders, former civil servants and armed forces officers have been warning of “disastrous” consequences and urged the government to take action before “it is too late”. They have also been urged the Supreme Court of India to take note of these actions that go against the country's constitutional ethos and norms. 

 (SAM)