On July 4, dozens of Muslim women in India found themselves “up for sale” on an app that went by the name “Sulli Deals”. The app uploaded publically available pictures of Muslim women, describing them as “deals of the day”. Github Pages (github.io) — the platform where the app was hosted — quickly took it down following massive outrage on Indian social media. An archived link to the app can be accessed here. Another archived link shows that the app was in the works since at least June 14. “Sulli” is a derogatory slang word used by the Hindu right-wing against Muslim women in India. While the sadistic auctioning of Muslim women came as a surprise for most, it wasn’t out of the blue. There have been many Twitter accounts indulging in such behaviour. A handle named ‘UrLocalSulliDealer’ (@sullideals101) was operating since 2019 and was using the name since at least June 2020. Many such handles were promoting the “Sulli Deals” app, including @sullideals786 and @sullideals (both will be discussed later in this article). A perverse handle @MCMughal created ‘Maharaja Gulab Singh Alpsankhyak Kalyan Yojana’ last year allowing men to make ‘bids’ for Muslim women. As recent as May 13, 2021, two accounts @LiberalDogeReal and @Keshu__10 started a Livestream on YouTube where they ‘rated’ and ‘auctioned’ Muslim women to their audience. The duo used photographs of Pakistani women without their consent and used sexist and Islamophobic language. They bragged about the Livestream when it attracted well-deserved criticism. The video was eventually taken down by YouTube. Newslaundry had published an investigative report revealing the identity of @LiberalDogeReal. The man behind the pseudonym is Ritesh Jha, 23, from Bihar. This article will later discuss @LiberalDogeReal in detail as we probe the organised effort to pin the blame of “Sulli Deals” on a young Muslim man. On July 22, a now-suspended Twitter handle @dankchikitsak made a thread blaming Zaved Alam (misspelt as “Javed”), 23, a computer engineering graduate from UP’s Kushinagar for the creation of “Sulli Deals”. The handle also claimed to be in possession of Zaved’s phone numbers and was willing to give them away to anyone who “wants to file a police complaint”. In the elaborate thread, the handle claimed that Zaved ran now-deleted Twitter accounts Rajeev (@AnonHindu4) and Zubair (@AnonMark3). The accounts used to post pornographic content. @dankchikitsak shared a Twitter chat between @AnonHindu4 and an alleged Muslim woman @not_sameen where Zaved reveals his identity. @dankchikitsak remains suspended but an archived link to the thread can be accessed here. Zaved asks for @not_sameen’s Telegram ID in the chat and the user says it’s the same as their Twitter ID (the Twitter ID no longer exists and accessing the Telegram ID gives a “not found” result). Three days later, @dankchikitsak made another thread that contained additional information. He tweeted a screenshot of a Telegram chat allegedly between Zaved Alam and @not_sameen where Zaved is allegedly confessing that he made the “Sulli Deals” app. Below is a screenshot of the alleged chat that happened on July 24. On August 30, after @dankchikitsak was suspended, another account @sullidealsXpose posted the exact thread and a scrolling video of the alleged Telegram chat. @sullidealsXpose later changed its name to @HateHunterr but the account is currently suspended. An archived link to the thread can be accessed here. Below is the Telegram chat claimed to have been taken place between Zaved Alam and @not_sameen on July 24. If one notices carefully, the person “Z” alleged to be Zaved Alam has shared a screenshot of a “Welcome to GitHub” intimation for @sullideals. This means that Z, whoever he is, had access to the backend of the app. Who is @dankchikitsak? The handle @dankchikitsak exists on Koo with a similar username @dantchikitsak (“k” replaced with “t” in the word ‘dank’) however, it isn’t an anonymous account on Koo. The person identifies as “Krunal”. Krunal’s full name is Dr Krunal Patel. He told Alt News that he wasn’t the sole operator of @dankchikitsak on Twitter. “The account was operated by multiple users. One of the admins made the thread on Zaved Alam. I did not,” he claimed. Krunal’s earlier Twitter username was @dantchikitsak_ and he existed on Instagram with the same username. He used identical display pictures on both platforms and a comparison of this picture with the display image on Koo reveals he is the same person. Krunal has held multiple Twitter accounts which are either suspended or do not exist anymore. @dentubhaiya and @dkrunal_patel are other examples.
Rivers Journal
Sulli Deals: Organised attempt to blame a Muslim youth for the app
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