Delhi Lt Governor VK Saxena has granted his authorisation to prosecute the main accused in the Sulli Deals case, Aumkareshwar Thakur, under Sections 196 of the CrPC, a report published by Times Now said.
The case pertains to the ‘Sulli Deals’ app, which created an outrage in July 2020 after several Muslim women in India found themselves put up for ‘auction’ to online bidders.
As per sources quoted by the news organisation, with LG’s imprimatur, the Delhi Police will now be able to prosecute Thakur, who is accused of creating the Sulli Deals App and Sulli Deals Twitter handles and putting up Muslim women for online auction.
The accused has prima facie committed an offence punishable under Sections 153A/354A(3) of the IPC and 66/67 of the IT Act. Police Station Special Cell had registered the case under FIR No 175/2021 dated July 7, 2021.
“The LG is of the considered view that a prima facie case is made out against the accused, and therefore sanction is granted for prosecuting the accused for the commission of the offences detailed in the FIR,” the report said.
How hate-filled objectification of Hindu women continues unabated on social media
While the egregious objectification of Muslim women is dealt with by the provisions available in law, Hindu women face a similarly targeted harassment on social media but their cause is not championed with the same vigour as seen in the Sulli Deals case. Much like Muslim women, Hindu women, too, have also suffered a fair share of religiously motivated attacks against them, but they are often slipped under the radar because highlighting them would be politically incorrect and could “jeopardise the secular fabric of the country.”
There are many pages on Facebook with a sizeable following that talk about targeting Hindu women because of their religion. The images shared on these pages, which are mostly explicit, show Hindu women with identifiable markers such as sindoor, bangles and bindi that differentiate Hindu women from others. The posts uploaded on these pages exhort followers to target and sexualise Hindu women.
But, unfortunately, despite repeated attempts by social media users to highlight such abuse, these issues seldom get the attention that they deserve and only some of them are brought to notice, often depending on the discretion of Ministers or influential people. In some cases that manage to gain prominence, the pages and abusive accounts get suspended but those who are responsible for creating and running them are hardly brought to book.
