The accused, suspected to be the creator of the video, was arrested in Andhra Pradesh and taken to Delhi for interrogation.
Actor Rashmika Mandanna. (X)
On Saturday, 20 January, the Delhi Police arrested a man in connection with the deepfake video of actor Rashmika Mandanna that was widely circulated on social media.
The accused, suspected to be the creator of the video, was arrested in Andhra Pradesh and brought to Delhi for interrogation, an official said.
On 10 November, an FIR was registered 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 at the Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) Unit of the Delhi Police’s Special Cell.
Soon after registering the FIR, the IFSO Unit wrote to Meta to get the URL and other details to identify the accused who made the video and put it on social media, officials added.
On 6 November, a deepfake video of Rashmika Mandanna went viral on social media sites.
The original video to the morphed version was traced to one Zara Patel with the Instagram handle “zaarapatelll”. The profile mentions her as a British-Indian girl being a full-time data engineer with 433k followers.
Reacting to the video, several people expressed serious concerns over deepfake videos and also sought immediate action.
Even Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar reacted strongly to the deepfake video and told the digital platforms to take down content that violates the IT rules of India.
The actor herself soon after reacted to the video, taking to her Instagram stories. Calling it “extremely scary”, the actor said she was hurt about the whole incident.
The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) also took suo moto cognisance of media reports of the deepfake video.
“Reportedly, the actress has also raised her concerns in the matter and stated that someone has illegally morphed her picture in the video. The Commission has learnt that, to date, no arrests have been made in the case. This is a very serious matter,” the DCW’s notice to the Delhi Police read.
(With PTI inputs)
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