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NOPE
High reported severity Criminal Charges

Chennai: a former employee downloaded a senior woman colleague's photographs from their company's website, morphed them into obscene images with AI applications and circulated them to the company's staff through fake Instagram accounts from 4 January 2026; Tamil Nadu's cyber-crime wing traced and arrested her (reported 4 February 2026) and she was remanded in judicial custody

From 4 January 2026 several employees of a Chennai company received follow requests from unknown Instagram accounts that then circulated defamatory content, including obscene AI-morphed images of a senior woman employee. On her complaint the State Cyber Crime Investigation Centre of the Tamil Nadu police traced the digital footprints, social-media activity and IP logs to a former employee of the same company who had resigned in October 2025 and, according to police, acted out of resentment and previous enmity to threaten, harass and publicly humiliate the victim; she had taken the photographs from the company's official website and morphed them using various artificial-intelligence applications. She was arrested, produced before a magistrate and remanded in judicial custody; the police press release was reported on 4 and 5 February 2026 and the cyber-crime DGP issued a public warning about social-media misuse. The victim alleged the images were circulated to damage her reputation and cause mental distress.

AI system
Unidentified image tool
Occurred
4 Jan 2026
Reported
4 February 2026
Event location
India
What the AI did
Depicted or impersonated the person
Reported harm
Exploitation or AbuseReputational HarmPsychological Distress
Whose AI use
Someone else’s AI use
Setting
Work · Everyday life · Privacy
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 3 sources, 1 underlying account
3 claims: 3 reported. 4 open questions
People reported harmed
1 person

AI system as recorded: AI image-morphing applications (unspecified; police say various artificial-intelligence applications were used)

What Happened

The Hindu (4 February 2026) reported that the Cyber Crime Wing of the Tamil Nadu police had arrested a woman who posted morphed photographs of her former colleague on social media with the intention of causing mental trauma and tarnishing her reputation. Acting on the complaint of the victim, an employee of a city-based company, investigators tracked digital footprints to the complainant's former colleague. In a press release the police said that in the first week of January several employees of the victim's company received follow requests on Instagram from unknown profiles, which were then used to circulate objectionable and defamatory content including morphed images of the victim; investigation revealed that the accused had deliberately misused social-media platforms to threaten and publicly humiliate the victim as an act of revenge; she was a former employee of the same organisation, where the victim holds a senior position, and had resigned in October 2025; she downloaded the victim's photographs from the company's official website and morphed them using various artificial-intelligence applications; she was produced in a city court and remanded in judicial custody. DT Next (4 February) added from the police that the follow requests came on 4 January, that the accused had resigned in October 2025 and fallen into depression, and that driven by resentment she morphed the photographs with various AI applications and circulated them through fake IDs; the DGP cautioned the public to safeguard personal data and report cyber harassment. The New Indian Express (5 February) reported the victim's complaint that objectionable and morphed images were circulated through fake Instagram accounts to damage her reputation and cause mental distress, that the accused had previous enmity with the victim, and that the investigation used digital footprints, social-media activity and IP logs. ThePrint's 4 February report, cited when the row was first published in June 2026, could not be re-read (live 403, no archive capture).

Reported harm

A senior woman employee had obscene AI-morphed images of herself sent to her colleagues through fake Instagram accounts from 4 January 2026; she alleged the images were circulated to damage her reputation and cause her mental distress, and police describe the aim as threatening, harassing and publicly humiliating her. The account rests on the police release and the complaint as reported.

Outcome

Unknown

Case registered by the State Cyber Crime Investigation Centre (Tamil Nadu Cyber Crime Wing) on the victim's complaint; the accused traced through digital footprints, social-media activity and IP logs, arrested, produced before a magistrate and remanded in judicial custody (police release reported 4 February 2026). The investigation was supervised by the Cyber Crime Wing DGP Sandeep Mittal and SP Adarsh Pachera; the DGP issued a public warning that cyber harassment through social media is punishable. The charges and any trial are not reported in the inspected sources.

What remains unknown

  • The date of the arrest (reported on 4 February 2026; not stated).
  • The charge sections and the outcome of the prosecution.
  • The AI applications used.
  • Whether the images were removed from the platforms.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. The police release states that the accused morphed the victim's photographs using various artificial-intelligence applications (The Hindu, DT Next, NIE); the applications are not named and no independent account was inspected.

3 claims: 3 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported From 4 January 2026 several employees of the victim's company received follow requests from unknown Instagram accounts, which were then used to circulate objectionable and defamatory content including obscene morphed images of a senior woman employee; she complained that the images were circulated to damage her reputation and cause mental distress.

Causal attribution. Police release and the victim's complaint as reported by three outlets (one chain).

  • thehindu.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'The Cyber Crime Wing of the Tamil Nadu police have arrested a woman who posted morphed photographs of her former colleague on social media platforms with an intention to cause mental trauma and tarnish her reputation.'; 'in the first week of January, several employees of the victim'
  • dtnext.in(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'received a follow request on January 4 from an unknown ID, which then went on to circulate defamatory content, including morphed images of the woman.'
  • newindianexpress.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'The case was registered following a complaint from a Chennai-based employee of a private company, who alleged that objectionable and morphed images were circulated using fake Instagram accounts to damage her reputation and cause mental distress.'; 'On January 4, several employees of the firm received follow requests from unknown Instagram IDs, which were later used to share defamatory content of the victim.'
Reported Police traced the accounts to a former employee of the same company who had resigned in October 2025 and, according to police, acted out of resentment and previous enmity to threaten, harass and publicly humiliate the victim; she downloaded the victim's photographs from the company's official website and morphed them using various artificial-intelligence applications.

Causal attribution. Police account; motive is the police characterisation.

  • thehindu.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'It was found that the accused was a former employee of the same organisation where the victim holds a senior position. She had resigned from her position in October 2025.'; 'She downloaded the photos of the victim from the official website of the company and morphed them using various Artificial Intelligence applications.'
  • dtnext.in(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'The accused had resigned from her job in October 2025 and fell into depression.'; 'morphed the photos using various Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications and had circulated through fake IDs, police said.'
  • newindianexpress.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'The accused had resigned in October 2025 and had previous enmity with the victim, police said.'
Reported The accused was arrested, produced before a magistrate and remanded in judicial custody, and the Cyber Crime Wing DGP issued a public warning that cyber harassment through social media is punishable.

Causal attribution. Police release.

  • thehindu.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'The accused was produced in a city court and remanded in judicial custody, the release said.'
  • dtnext.in(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'The accused was produced before a magistrate and remanded in judicial custody.'; 'cautioned citizens to use social media platforms responsibly and warned that cyber harassment through social media is punishable.'

Sources

3 sources inspected, from 1 underlying account. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read on 2026-09-23 from an Internet Archive capture (live page 403); The Hindu, Chennai, published 4 February 2026 19:45 IST. Carries the police press release. Applies to s1.

Read live on 2026-09-23 (DT Next, 4 February 2026): the same police release with the 4 January date and the DGP's warning. Applies to s2.

Read live on 2026-09-23 (The New Indian Express, 5 February 2026): the complaint and the police account; same chain. Applies to s3.

Original primary source of the June 2026 row (ThePrint, 4 February 2026); on 2026-09-23 the live page returned 403, no Internet Archive capture was found and the reader proxy was redirected to an unrelated blocked page (loadway.best). Not relied on. Applies to s4.

Event countries: India. Affected-person countries: India. Court countries: India.

The victim is a Chennai-based employee of a private company (The New Indian Express) and the case was handled by the Tamil Nadu Cyber Crime Wing with a Chennai dateline (The Hindu: city-based company); the accused was produced in a city court and remanded (The Hindu, DT Next).

Reviewed for publication 2026-09-23: Restored under the 2026-09-15 charter as a harmful-artifact case in a workplace: obscene AI-morphed images of a senior employee sent to her colleagues, documented by a Tamil Nadu police press release carried by three outlets (one chain, all claims reported). The original ID and first-publication timestamp are preserved; the incident date and unsupported details of the historical row are corrected. Neither woman is named.

People described

A woman who holds a senior position at a private company in Chennai; her photographs, taken from the company website, were morphed into obscene images and sent to colleagues. Not named in the reporting or here

People reported harmed in this case

1 person

0 AI participants · 1 other person harmed

One victim, the senior employee whose images were morphed and circulated (The Hindu, DT Next, NIE). Exact 1.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Tags

#deepfake#morphing#harassment#india#tamil-nadu#chennai#workplace#instagram#non-consensual-images#arrest

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). Chennai: a former employee downloaded a senior woman colleague's photographs from their company's website, morphed them into obscene images with AI applications and circulated them to the company's staff through fake Instagram accounts from 4 January 2026; Tamil Nadu's cyber-crime wing traced and arrested her (reported 4 February 2026) and she was remanded in judicial custody. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-chennai-ai-morphed-ex-colleague

BibTeX

@misc{2026_chennai_ai_morphed_ex_colleague,
  title = {Chennai: a former employee downloaded a senior woman colleague's photographs from their company's website, morphed them into obscene images with AI applications and circulated them to the company's staff through fake Instagram accounts from 4 January 2026; Tamil Nadu's cyber-crime wing traced and arrested her (reported 4 February 2026) and she was remanded in judicial custody},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-chennai-ai-morphed-ex-colleague}
}

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