'Bulli Bai' case: Engineering student in Bengaluru detained by Mumbai police

A 21-year-old engineering student in Bengaluru was held by the Mumbai police on Monday in connection with the "Bulli Bai" case.

The Mumbai police has not revealed the student's identity, but the News Minute reported that the student was taken to Mumbai yesterday.

The news website quoted a senior IPS officer as saying, "The 21-year-old is a second-year civil engineering student. He used his Twitter handle to share derogatory content from the Bulli Bai app. We have detained him."

The officer added that the student, who has not been arrested yet, was "traced through the IP address of the Twitter accounts that were used to upload the pictures".

The case pertains to unidentified individuals uploading doctored images with comments targeting Muslim women on a website hosted by GitHub. Fake "auctions" were also held using the photos. The matter came into attention on January 1 when Delhi-based journalist Ismat Ara, who was targeted by the page, flagged it on Twitter.

The Mumbai police and the Delhi police registered FIRs in the matter and the website was subsequently blocked.

Union minister for electronics and information technology Ashwini Vaishnaw had earlier said the government was “working with police organisations in Delhi and Mumbai on this matter”.