'Wanted to tarnish image': Police on man held over AI poster showing cop assaulting woman

Police said Nadeem admitted during questioning that he used AI tools to create such videos. (PTI)

NEW DELHI: Delhi Police on Tuesday said it arrested a 24-year-old man for allegedly creating and circulating an AI-generated fake poster that falsely depicted a police officer sexually assaulting a woman during a protest.

Police said the accused, Nadeem Ahmed, allegedly created the poster "to tarnish the image of the police and turn protesters against them."Addressing a press conference, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) Manjeet said Nadeem admitted during questioning that he used AI tools to create such videos.Police said Nadeem claimed to be an independent journalist and had been running an Instagram account since April.

The account had around 24,000 followers and 1,226 posts, according to investigators.“On 3rd October, we saw a footage circulating on social media wherein it is being shown as the CCTV footage from the protest site. It is being portrayed that an individual in Police uniform is misbehaving with a woman. Through social media, the identity of the officer is being revealed. When we examined it, we found that one Nadeem Ahmed, a r/o Palwal, Haryana was running that channel.

We arrested him. In the initial questioning, he told us that he is an independent journalist.

He told us that he had studied till class 10 in Madrasa of Saket, Delhi,” police said.“He also told us that he is a 10th-fail. Upon further questioning, he told us that he has AI tools, with the help of which he keeps making such videos. When we asked him why he made such videos, he told us that he wanted to tarnish the image of Police so that the protesters coming there would start harbouring hatred for the Police and start attacking them.

We took immediate cognisance of this and arrested him. We will take him into police remand and further question him.

His source of funding and accomplices are matters of investigation. We have seized his phone for further analysis. He became more active during CJP protest. So, we will analyse if this is part of any bigger conspiracy...” police added.Nadeem, who studied at a madrassa in Saket and failed to clear Class 10, was arrested on Monday and produced before a court, which granted police custody for further investigation.Police are also investigating whether others were involved in the alleged conspiracy and are working to identify them. His phone has been seized for forensic and further analysis.The arrest comes amid a controversy over an assistant commissioner of police accused of sexually harassing a woman journalist during a protest against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

ACP Vivek Bhagat was promoted to the rank of additional deputy commissioner on Monday along with three other officers from his batch.

However, the order assigning him additional charge was withdrawn on Tuesday.According to the government, Bhagat requested "of his own volition" not to take charge until a full inquiry into the alleged harassment of women journalists is conducted and "satisfactorily concluded".Earlier, CJP spokesperson Saurav Das had accused Delhi Police of refusing to register an FIR against an additional DCP over an alleged assault on an independent journalist and demanded action against the officer. Separately, complaints by three women journalists alleging harassment by police personnel had triggered protests and demands for action.