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Suspects held after fake online sale of Muslim women

Published:Wednesday | January 5, 2022 | 12:09 AM
Unidentified Muslim women walk pass a board displaying the name of the Hindu nationalist group Sri Ram Sena Hindustan in a residential neighbourhood in Belagavi, India, in October 2021.
Aijaz Rahi
Unidentified Muslim women walk pass a board displaying the name of the Hindu nationalist group Sri Ram Sena Hindustan in a residential neighbourhood in Belagavi, India, in October 2021.

NEW DELHI (AP):

Police in India have detained a man and a woman alleged to be involved in the offering for sale of prominent Muslim women on a fake online auction website, according to government officials, in a case that has sparked outrage across the country.

The cyber unit of the Mumbai Police detained the two suspects following a complaint from one of the targeted woman. It wasn’t clear whether the two created the website.

Police brought charges against the man, a 21-year-old engineering student, and said they were investigating the woman further.

Photographs of more than 100 prominent Indian Muslim women, including journalists, activists, film stars and artists, were displayed last weekend without their permission on a website and put up for fake auction. The women listed on the website also included the 65-year-old mother of a disappeared Indian student and Pakistani Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai.

The website, which was taken down within 24 hours, was called ‘Bulli Bai’, a derogatory term for Indian Muslims. Though there was no real sale involved, the Muslim women listed on the website said the auction was intended to humiliate them, many of whom have been vocal about rising Hindu nationalism in India and some of the policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.