Rashmika Mandanna Deepfake Case: Accused tells police why he created Pushpa actress’ viral deepfake video

New Delhi: After a 2-month-long pursuit, Delhi Police, on Saturday, finally nabbed the man allegedly behind actress Rashmika Mandanna’s viral deepfake video that ignited a massive outrage on social media in 2023.

Identified as Eemani Naveen, the accused culprit was arrested from Andhra Pradesh from where Delhi police later brought him to Delhi for further investigation & interrogation purposes.

Police tell why accused made Rashmika Mandanna’s deep fake video

Following Eemani Naveen’s arrest, DCP IFSO Unit Hemant Tiwari spoke about the same with the media & disclosed that the cops had nabbed him from Andhra Pradesh’s Guntur district. He also revealed that police have seized the accused’s laptop and mobile phone and are currently making efforts to recover the deleted data.

Later, Hemant also revealed that Eemani, who is a 24-year-old B tech graduate, used to run Rashmika Mandanna’s & two other prominent South Indian names for a long time and even had a decent following of 90K on his social media account. However, in order to increase his follower count & compete with his friends, Eemani created the objectionable deep fake video of the Pushpa actresses on 12 October 2023 and later uploaded it on the Internet on 13 October 2023.

#WATCH | Delhi: On main accused arrested in the case of deep fake profiles of actor Rashmika Mandana, DCP IFSO Unit Hemant Tiwari says, “..We’ve arrested the main accused identified as Eemani Naveen, 24, from Andhra Pradesh’s Guntur. Laptop and mobile phone recovered from him.… pic.twitter.com/YzLXMcSaZ8

— ANI (@ANI) January 20, 2024

Eemani Naveen’s arrest was made about 2 months after the Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations ( IFSO) unit registered an FIR against the accused under several relevant sections of the IPC & IT Act on 10th November. Following that, the unit swung into action and approached META to retrieve the accused’s URL & other necessary details to track down the accused who created & shared Rashmika’s deepfake on the internet.

Rashmika Mandanna Deepfake Controversy

For the unversed, a deepfake video of actress Rashmika Mandanna circulated on the internet back in November 2023, triggering massive outrage amongst the masses on social media.

🚨 There is an urgent need for a legal and regulatory framework to deal with deepfake in India.

You might have seen this viral video of actress Rashmika Mandanna on Instagram. But wait, this is a deepfake video of Zara Patel.

This thread contains the actual video. (1/3) pic.twitter.com/SidP1Xa4sT

— Abhishek (@AbhishekSay) November 5, 2023

In the AI-generated objectionable video, a British Indian woman Zara Patel, with Rashmika’s face Artificially attached to her body,  was shown walking inside an elevator wearing a revealing skin-tight fitting dress. The video was deceiving enough to make many believe that the woman seen in the elevator was indeed Rashmika until the truth about it was unveiled by some social media users.