Delhi Police on Saturday arrested a 24-year-old man in connection with the deepfake video of actor Rashmika Mandanna. The video had gone viral on social media in November last sparking widespread outrage.
Police said the accused, identified as Eemani Naveen who is suspected to be the creator of the video, was arrested from Andhra Pradesh and has been brought to Delhi. He is being interrogated.
According to reports, Naveen is a digital marketer. He was nabbed after Delhi Police examined over 500 social media accounts associated with the deepfake video.
In November, soon after the video went viral, Delhi Police's Special Cell had filed an FIR under Indian Penal Code sections 465 (punishment for forgery) and 469 (forgery for purpose of harming reputation) and sections 66C and 66E of the Information Technology Act.
The cops had also written to Meta to get the URL and other details to identify the accused who made the video and put it on the social media.
The Delhi Police action was based on a complaint received from Delhi Commission for Women (DCW), after the Commission took suo-moto cognisance of the deepfake video row.
Naveen reportedly told police that he was a fan of Rashmika and used to run a fan page of the actor. The accused further said that he had created the video to gain followers on Instagram.
Deepfakes are made when a person in an existing image or video is replaced with someone else's likeness using technology like artificial intelligence, mostly to promote fake news.
In the controversial video, according to reports, the face of a British-Indian celebrity was edited and altered with Mandanna’s face.