Delhi Court Denies Bail to Alleged Creator of Sulli Deals Aumkareshwar Thakur

Aumkareshwar Thakur, alleged creator of the Sulli Deals app.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A Delhi Court denied bail to Aumkareshwar Thakur, the alleged creator of the Sulli Deals app, on Sunday, 16 January. The Delhi Police had arrested the 26-year-old from Madhya Pradesh's Indore on 9 January.

In July 2021, photos of several Muslim women were uploaded on this app, with accompanying text: "deal of the day."

The court said that the “misuse of technology and impact of alleged acts on the larger section of society cannot be reduced to negligible when being compared to the other offences with harsher punishment," as per LiveLaw.

Thakur was arrested after another incident targeting Muslim women took place on 1 January 2022, with photos of hundreds of them uploaded on an app using GitHub – by the name of 'Bulli Bai' – creating widespread outrage and disgust.

'After Uproar Over Sulli Deals, Thakur Deleted His Social Media': Police

Thakur, who has done his BCA from IPS Academy, was arrested by the Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) unit of the Special Cell, Delhi Police.

DCP (IFSO) KPS Malhotra told The Quint that Niraj Bishnoi, the alleged main conspirator of Bulli Bai app who was arrested from Assam's Jorhat on Wednesday, 5 January 2022, "led them to Thakur."

He also told The Quint, "Thakur had joined a group on Twitter by the name of TradMahaSabha in January 2020 using the Twitter handle @gangescion. During various group discussions, the members had discussed about trolling and defaming Muslim women."

He added that Thakur "had developed the code/app on GitHub. After the uproar regarding the Sulli Deals app, he deleted his social media footprint. Analysis of his gadgets is underway to find out the codes and images related to the Sulli Deals app."

About Sulli Deals

Photos of several Muslim women were uploaded on 'Sulli Deals' – on Sunday, 4 July 2021. Sulla or Sulli is a derogatory term used to refer to Muslims. The app came to light when people started sharing their 'deal of the day' on Twitter, but it has since been removed by GitHub.

"Once opened, the app would ask the user to click on 'Find your sulli deal of the day'. It would then randomly display a photo of a Muslim woman as your 'sulli deal of the day' – the photo most likely sourced from their social media account. I was shocked to see my face being right there, displayed as the deal of the day," Hana Mohsin Khan, a pilot by profession, had told The Quint.