Patna youth held for making obscene deepfakes, extortion

Begusarai: Police on Sunday arrested a 28-year-old youth on charges of creating sexually explicit deepfakes of innocent girls and sharing it on social media. The accused, identified as Kumar Sankrit, was arrested from his residence at Khajekalan in Patna City.Begusarai cyber DSP Imran Ahmad said Sankrit used to save pictures of innocent girls available on various social media platforms and convert them into AI-generated sexually explicit videos and pictures. He also used these pictures and videos to blackmail the girls for extortion. The matter came to light after the mother of one of the victims, a minor girl, lodged a complaint at the local cyber police station on Saturday.“The complaint was registered on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP) and investigation in the case was started on the basis of chats on social media, phone numbers and the bank account made available by the complainant.

The investigations led the cyber police team to zero in on Sankrit,” he said. He further said it was also found that the accused had even blackmailed the victim and her family to pay Rs20,000 as ransom.

The amount was found to have been deposited in an account on the accused name.“The mobile phone used by the accused was also seized. The seized phone’s gallery contained over 200 AI-generated nude pictures and videos. The explicit videos have even been shared on social media groups. Police are examining the profiles of the members involved with these groups,” he said.The cyber DSP said the accused had been booked under relevant provisions of the BNS, Pocso and IT Acts to ensure maximum punishment to him.