The Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay the court proceedings in the multiple cases registered against Aumkareshwar Thakur, the creator of the Sulli Deals app in which scores of Muslim women were put on “sale” by right-wing Hindus.
A bench comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and MM Sundresh issued notice to the Governents of Delhi, UP and Maharashtra on the writ petition filed by Thakur seeking the clubbing of the multiple FIRs, Live Law reported.
During the hearing, the top court orally observed that each victim woman was an aggreived person who can file complaints separately.
“But that is not same offence. There are two websites. One is Sulli Deals and other is Bulli Bai. Can that be said to be conjoint?There are multiple uploads. Each person would have filed independently. Can it be called same offence?All of the FIRs are different as there has been multiple uploads” Live Law quotes the bench as asking.
When the apex court agreed to issue notice, the counsel requested for a stay on the proceedings in the cases against him. Chargesheets have been filed in the FIRs lodged in Delhi, Noida and Mumbai.
“Only notice now. We have our doubts”, the bench said.
“Bulli Bai” and “Sulli” are the abusive and derogatory ways of referring to Muslim women.
Nearly six months after the ‘Sulli Deals‘ where photographs of more than 80 Muslim women put up for sale by right-wing Hindus in July 2021, asserting anti-Muslim hatred and selective sexism, photos of hundreds of Muslim women were uploaded by an unidentified group on an App using GitHub – by the name of ‘Bulli Bai’ – on 1 January 2022.
