The Surat police crime branch on Monday arrested a 28-year-old embroidery businessman Kishan Arvind Rupani under IPC section 469 (forgery for purpose of harming reputation) for allegedly circulating a deepfake video on Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on social media made using Wambo.AI. Kishan Rupani hails from a village near Dhandhuka. He has told police that he had made such video for more likes and followers on social media platform Instagram. Police has also seized Kishan Rupani’s phone.

A deepfake video had shown Rupani singing American singer Taylor Swift’s song ‘I knew you were trouble’ through deepfake.

Surat Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), with detection of crime branch, Rahul Patel told Indian Express, “Due to the Covid-19 situation, we have put our surveillance team on social media on alert to keep eye on those who are spreading fake messages to create panic in the society. Our team on Sunday found a morphed video of the CM, which had become viral on social media platforms. We checked the root of the video and found that it was first loaded on an Instagram handle gujju_smaily. Our teams worked on it and found that it was operated by Kishan Rupani. Our teams later located him and caught him. During interrogation… he said he made the morphed video and uploaded it…”

However looking at the video, it doesn’t seem like it can potentially spread any panic. The video has been made using Wambo.AI, a mobile app that facilitates deepfake video conversion of any photo for fun purposes. Social media enthusiasts have made scores of videos featuring politicians and leaders using this app for fun and humor purpose.

સાહેબ આ જુઓ, મસ્ત બનાવ્યું છે કોઈકે 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/4Abu2hBC3C

— Rajesh Vastarpara (@RajVastarpara) April 11, 2021