Rajasthan man arrested for creating, circulating deepfake video of Tamil Nadu CM

The Tamil Nadu Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID) has arrested a man from Rajasthan for allegedly creating and circulating an AI-generated deepfake video of Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay to defraud the public, police said on Tuesday.

Following the arrest, the CB-CID (Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department) police continued to investigate the case to determine whether the accused acted alone or is part of a wider network, he said.

According to the CB-CID official, the police registered cases under various sections of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) after various AI generated deep fake videos with Hindi audio impersonating Vijay emerged on various social media portals last month.

According to police, several cases were registered on September 1 under BNS sections 204 (impersonating a public servant) , 318 (2) (cheating), 319 (2) (cheating as a public servant).

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Initial investigations revealed that the suspects used AI-generated people to cheat innocent people across Madhya Pradesh and other states.

The CB-CID requested social media sites to remove the deep-fake AI videos and obtained the data from various service providers.

Two special teams carried out extensive searches in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh who with the assistance of Rajasthan Police, arrested Shyabu Khan on September 12.

Several mobile phones, SIM Cards, CPUs used to commit the offence were seized from him.

The accused was brought to Chennai on transit warrant from Rajasthan and remanded to judicial custody.