Coimbatore college student arrested for morphing photos of over 20 girls using AI tools, posting on social media

The Coimbatore District (Rural) Police have arrested a male student of a private college on charges of morphing photographs of more than 20 female students of the same institution using artificial intelligence-based image editing tools and posting them on social media.  

The police said that the arrested, a 20-year-old student hailing from Tiruchi district, used AI tools to generate semi-nude images of 24 students. The student posted them on Instagram, after creating a fake account in the name of a woman.

According to the police, the accused had been doing his third year undergraduation in a private college located at Malumichampatti. Some of the female students of the college, mainly those residing in college hostel, came to know recently that their morphed images had been uploaded from an Instagram account.

“The affected students informed the police control room, based on which a woman inspector was tasked to investigate their complaint. The police acted swiftly and requested Instagram to remove the account. The police zeroed in on a few suspects based on the statements of the victims and questioned them. One of them admitted to have committed the crime when the police confronted him with credible information. The credentials of the account holder shared by the social media firm also matched with that of the prime suspect” said a senior police officer.

A case was registered against the student at the All Women Police Station, Karumathampatti, for offence under Section 67 A (punishment for publishing or transmitting of material containing sexually explicit act, etc., in electronic form) of the Information Technology Act and for sexual harassment under Section 75 (1) (iii) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. 

During the investigation, the police found out that the accused had collected the photos of the affected female students from their social media accounts and WhatsApp groups. He had also misused photographs of female students that had been shared by his girlfriend. He created deepfake and semi-nude photos of them using AI tools and uploaded them through the fake Instagram account from January 18, said the officer.

“The account used for posting morphed photographs has been removed,” added the officer.