KPS Malhotra, DCP (Cyber Cell) said, “We apprehended Anumkareshwar Thakur from Indore for his role in the Sulli Deals case. During interrogation, he admitted he joined a trad group (Tradmahasabha) on Twitter and the idea was to defame and troll Muslim women.
The Delhi Police on Sunday arrested a 25-year-old man from Indore for allegedly creating a web-based app in July last year which hosted doctored photographs and objectionable comments targeting Muslim women.
KPS Malhotra, DCP (Cyber Cell) said, “We apprehended Anumkareshwar Thakur from Indore for his role in the Sulli Deals case. During interrogation, he admitted he joined a trad group (Tradmahasabha) on Twitter in January 2020 and the idea was to defame and troll Muslim women. He then developed code for the Sulli Deals on GitHub. The access to the app was with all the members of the group. He shared the app details on his Twitter account. The photos of the Muslim women were uploaded by other group members.”
The app targeted around 50-80 Muslim women in July, 2021 and was soon pulled down by GitHub after several women lodged complaints with the Delhi and Noida police alleging that the creators of the app were misusing their photos to “auction” them online.
On Saturday, police apprehended Thakur (25) from Indore. Thakur was a BCA student from IPS Academy in Indore. The arrest comes days after the Delhi Police arrested a 21-year-old Niraj Bishnoi from Assam for allegedly creating a similar app on GitHub in December last year. The app published photos of more than 100 Muslim women with objectionable remarks.
Thakur has been arrested by the Cyber Cell in Delhi and is being interrogated.
Speaking about the arrest, Rajya Sabha MP Digvijay Singh said, “These youngsters are just foot soldiers. The bigger sharks are poisoning their minds and paying them some money. Catch the Big Fish.”
Speaking with The Indian Express, Mandleshwar Thakur, the brother of Anumkareshwar, said, “My father was away when they came to arrest my brother. He was quite confident and also told the police that he was not involved and has been falsely accused. He had reason to be involved in such acts. We come from a well settled family. My father is employed with a private company and both of us are working as well.
He added that both he and his brother had no social media presence at all for the last few years. “He was always very busy with work and had taken up a lot of freelance projects as well. My mother has not eaten anything since Anumkareshwar was arrested.”
