United Nations:Harassment of Muslim women in India through social media apps such as "Sulli Deals" must be condemned and prosecuted as soon as they occur, a UN Special Rapporteur has said. UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues Dr Fernand de Varennes took to Twitter to raise concern on the issue of minorities in India, saying Muslim women in India are harassed and sold in social media apps.
"Minority Muslim women in India are harassed & 'sold' in #socialmedia apps, Sulli Deals, a form of HateSpeech, must be condemned and prosecuted as soon as they occur. All human rights of minorities need to be fully & equally protected, Varennes said in a tweet on Tuesday. The Delhi Police last week arrested Aumkareshwar Thakur, 26, who is believed to be the creator of "Sulli Deals" app from Madhya Pradesh's Indore, the first arrest made in the case.
Hundreds of Muslim women were listed for auction on the mobile application with photographs sourced without permission and doctored. The accused, a Bachelor of Computer Application degree holder, admitted that he was a member of a group on Twitter and the idea to defame and troll Muslim women was shared there. "He admitted that he had developed the code/app on GitHub. After the uproar regarding the Sulli Deals app, he had deleted all his social media footprints," a senior police officer said.