Bhopal: Police in Indore has registered four cases against unknown persons for circulating deepfake videos of prominent politicians including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The reports were registered after the police compared the original videos with the circulated ones as the police don’t have software tools to detect deepfake technology, an officer who did not wish to be named said.

On November 17, Modi had cautioned the country about the dangers posed by deepfake images and videos generated using Artificial Intelligence.

On the same day, an FIR was registered at Kanadiya police station in Indore in context of a video in which Modi was seen laughing while addressing the nation on a serious issue.

“A WhatsApp user filed FIR after seeing a deepfake video in which artificial intelligence was used to edit a speech of the PM Modi in which he was seen laughing during his speech. The video of the PM was portraying his image as a non-serious leader,” said KP Yadav, town inspector Kanadiya.

In addition to this, three other FIRS have been registered with Crime Branch, Indore.

One was related to a video of Madhya Pradesh Congress president Kamal Nath announcing the discontinuation of a social welfare scheme launched by the BJP-led state government, Ladli Lakshmi Yojana, in which each women in the state gets ₹,1, 250 every month.

The FIR was registered on the complaint of Congress leader Rakesh Yadav in the second week of November before the recent state poll was held on November 17, the police officer quoted above said.

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Cases have also been lodged against unknown persons for circulating fake videos of BJP candidate from Indore 1 and party national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya and Congress candidate from Indore-5, Satyanarayan Patel. These leaders have said that “deepfake” videos of them were circulated on social media to harm them politically before November 17.

“Crime branch registered FIRs under sections of IT Act for morphing and editing videos by using artificial intelligence. As of now, we don’t have any software to detect the deepfake but we are doing it by comparing the original person with the person shown in the deepfake video,” Crime branch deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Nimish Agrawal said,

“Such videos are being used mainly to malign the image of politicians and spread misinformation. The accused in the matter is unknown. It is very tough to trace the origin of the video but we are taking help of cyber experts,” he added.

The state’s cyber cell superintendent of police Vaibhav Shrivastava said, “We will extend support to district police to probe the matter of deepfake (videos). We will soon release an advisory to district police regarding deepfake and using AI to make fake videos and photos.”