New Update
Who Is Shweta Singh: An 18-year-old woman Shweta Singh is the prime suspect behind the Bulli Bai controversy. She has been arrested by the Mumbai Police for posting photos of several Muslim women on an app without their consent. Her objective was to conduct a virtual 'auction' and mint money.
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Who is Shweta Singh?
- Shweta is an 18-year-old girl from Kotwali in Uttarakhand who lost her parents to different diseases.
- Her father succumbed to COVID-19 last year.
- Her mother died of cancer a few years ago.
- Her elder sister is a commerce graduate. Her younger sister and brother are school students.
- She had been studying for engineering entrance examinations.
- As per reports, she was using a fake Twitter handle with the name JattKhalsa07.
- The handle was being used for uploading hate posts and objectionable photos and comments. People associated with her followed the same ideology.
- According to sources from the team investigating the case, her friend from Nepal was instructing her regarding the activities to be carried out on the app.
- Vishal Kumar is the person who revealed her name. He was arrested earlier in Bengaluru. He was closely associated with whatever Shweta did. He used to edit pictures of women from a particular community and then upload them on the app.
- Shweta was taken into custody from Udham Singh Nagar district. A transit remand was sought till January 5 by Mumbai police officials.
- It is not clear whether Shweta created the application. She will be brought to Mumbai today and could be produced in a magistrate's court today on 5 January, 2022.
What is Bulli Bai controversy?
On January 1, many Muslim women – including prominent journalists, writers, activists – found their names and photos morphed on an app hosted by open-source platform GitHub. The app described those Muslim women as ‘Bulli Bai of the day’ to ‘auction’ them off in a virtual bid.
First Information Reports (FIRs) were filed in both Delhi and Mumbai following complaints raised with the police. After this, the app was taken down from GitHub. The government’s Information Technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw took cognisance of the matter on Twitter and promised swift action.
Suggested Reading : ‘Bulli Bai’ Case: 21-Year-Old Bengaluru Student Arrested, One Other Woman Detained