No pre-arrest bail to man booked for uploading deep fakes of Amitabh Bachchan

Mumbai court rejects anticipatory bail plea of accused for making deepfake videos of Amitabh Bachan, citing gravity of offence and rejection of interim protection.

MUMBAI: The sessions court on Wednesday rejected the anticipatory bail plea of the accused booked for allegedly making deepfake videos of actor Amitabh Bachan using vulgar and objectionable dialogues and uploading them on Instagram.

Amitabh Bachchan

Additional sessions judge Abhay Joglekar rejected the pre-arrest bail plea of Abhijeet Balaji Patil citing the gravity of the offence, while pointing out that his interim protection was also rejected.

Patil was booked by the cyber police after a complaint was lodged by Tarini Kulkarni, working with law firm Anand & Naik, which represents the actor, in the first week of May. He was booked by the West zone cyber police under sections 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document) and 500 (criminal defamation) of the Indian Penal Code and sections 66(C), 66(D) and 67 of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

According to the cyber police, Patil reportedly used the Instagram handle of an ayurveda firm run by Patil, to share the deepfakes. Earlier, the cyber police had requested the court to reject the anticipatory bail plea on the ground that Patil shared it online to “incite the emotions of the audience, thereby harming the public and Amitabh Bachchan”.

The intervenor, Anand and Naik, representing the legendary actor requested the rejection of the anticipatory bail plea while stating that the offence is serious.

Requesting anticipatory bail, Patil’s counsel, advocate Abhijit Desai submitted that the allegations made against him were false and fabricated. Further, the defence submitted that Patil’s Instagram account was hacked around March or April this year.

The defence further noted that there was no evidence to show his involvement and added that the seizure of his mobile phone had led to a substantial business loss for Patil. According to Patil, he is the founder of a startup called Himabhi Ayurveda, which also received a Udyog certificate from the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. The defence also argued that the sections of the Indian Penal Code would not apply to the case, adding that the accused could only be booked under relevant sections of the Information Technology Act, which are bailable.