Complaint filed against Maharashtra Youth Cong for sharing doctored video of Shah

PTI, Apr 30, 2024, 8:26 AM IST

A complaint was filed on Monday against the social media handles of Maharashtra Youth Congress and 16 others for sharing a deep fake video of Union home minister and BJP leader Amit Shah in which he was seen announcing the curtailment of reservation rights of SCs, STs and OBCs, a police official said on Monday.

The complainant was filed by Mumbai BJP functionary Pratik Karpe at Bandra Kurla Complex Cyber Police Station, an official said.

The deep fake video of Shah was widely shared by the accused persons with malafide intent to defame him, the complainant told police.

As per the complaint, the deep fake video deceitfully portrays Shah announcing the curtailment the reservation rights granted to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes.

However, the original video, from where the deep fake video has been created, has completely different wordings and connotations, said Karpe.

In his original speech Amit Shah had said if BJP comes to power, they will finish unconstitutional Muslim reservation and this right will be given to the SCs, STs and OBCs of Telangana, as per the complainant.

”The accused persons made deep fake video of the speech and circulated widely on various social media platforms. The police must take down the deep fake video immediately and register a case against the accused persons, who shared it with the intention of causing disruption, enmity and hatred in different castes,” he said.

On Sunday, the Special Cell of Delhi Police had registered an FIR after the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), which is under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA, filed a complaint about the doctored video of Shah where his statements indicating a commitment to abolish quota for Muslims on religious ground in Telangana were changed to make it seem that he was advocating scrapping of all reservations.

The Delhi Police, which is also under the MHA, filed the FIR under sections 153 (causing provocation with intention to cause riot), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc), 465 (forgery), 469 (forgery to harm the reputation of any party), and 171G (publishing false statement with intent to affect the result of an election) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and under Information Technology Act.