E-Paper
2 youths circulate AI photos of woman on social media, land in police net
Joint probe by police and Cyber Crime Unit traced the perpetrators using technical data from Instagram, including IP logs, which led to their identification and arrest, says ACP
LUCKNOW Two youths from Lucknow, both BA second year students, were arrested on Thursday for allegedly circulating doctored/obscene photographs of a woman in their neighbourhood on Instagram using fake IDs, after downloading them from the social media platform.
“The tech-savvy duo used Wi-Fi networks of the victim’s house and a few others in the neighbourhood to carry out the activity, a deliberate move, to obfuscate their location and hamper detection,” said ACP (Mohanlaganj) Rajneesh Verma.
The accused were identified as Subhash Yadav, 20, of Mau and Suraj Kumar, 19, of Ahmed Kheda,” said SHO (Mohanlaganj) DK Singh.
The ACP said Subhash had a heated conversation with the victim in the past, which allegedly drove him to shame her.
“A joint probe by the police team and the Cyber Crime Unit traced the perpetrators using technical data from Instagram, including IP logs, which led to their identification and arrest,” said Verma, adding, “when the victim’s IP addresses were checked, we found some of the data was deleted, which hinted towards someone known and in the neighbourhood.
An FIR was registered at Mohanlalganj under sections 66E/67 of the IT Act and 352 of the BNS after a complaint by a resident of Ranikheda Majra Bhaudri, informing police about the incident.
“Two mobile phones were seized from the accused who were operating more than 10 fake Instagram accounts. We recovered edited material relating to about 50 women, the majority reportedly downloaded from public Instagram profiles and then altered using AI tools. The fake accounts were used to add the victims’ acquaintances and forward obscene photos and messages,” said the ACP.
DCP (South) Nipun Agarwal said the duo was being interrogated to identify others involved and to determine whether the obscene material was being sold or shared more widely.
