Skip to main content
NOPE
High reported severity Criminal Charges

Delhi: a 22-year-old engineering graduate was arrested for turning a college acquaintance's private social-media photographs into AI-generated obscene images uploaded to anonymous Discord servers, and for reposting more explicit AI-generated images and videos that other users made; the complainant also reported threatening messages from anonymous accounts

Delhi Police announced on Wednesday 9 September 2026 the arrest of a 22-year-old BTech graduate from East Punjabi Bagh after a 22-year-old woman complained to the Cyber Police Station in North Delhi that unknown persons had created and circulated AI-generated obscene photographs and videos using her facial images. She had received messages from anonymous Instagram accounts telling her that morphed photographs and videos of her were being circulated on Discord servers; she also alleged that fake Instagram accounts were posting the material and that threatening messages were being sent to her to humiliate and harass her. Police traced linked Instagram, Discord and Gmail accounts to the accused, who they say obtained her photographs from her private account, used AI image-generation and editing tools to create the images, uploaded them to anonymous Discord servers and later reposted more explicit AI-generated images and videos made by other users. Police say he told them he knew her from college and had developed personal resentment after repeated insults. A mobile phone and two SIM cards were recovered; investigation continues. The period over which the material circulated is not stated.

AI system
Unidentified image tool
Occurred
Event date unknown
Reported
9 September 2026
Event location
India
What the AI did
Depicted or impersonated the person
Reported harm
Exploitation or AbusePsychological DistressReputational Harm
Whose AI use
Someone else’s AI use
Setting
Everyday life · Privacy · Relationships
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources, 1 underlying account
3 claims: 3 reported. 4 open questions
People reported harmed
1 person

AI system as recorded: AI-based image-generation and editing tools (not identified)

What Happened

Police account (Delhi Police, via PTI and the Times of India). The complainant told the Cyber Police Station in North Delhi that unknown persons had created and circulated AI-generated obscene photographs and videos using her facial images. She had received messages from several anonymous Instagram accounts saying her morphed photographs and videos were being circulated through Discord servers; fake Instagram accounts were posting and sharing the content; and threatening messages were being sent to her 'with the intention of humiliating and harassing her'. Investigators analysed digital footprints, social-media accounts and email IDs, found linkages among multiple Instagram accounts, Discord accounts and Gmail IDs, and identified and arrested the accused, a BTech graduate in electronics and communication engineering living in East Punjabi Bagh. Police say he obtained her photographs from her private account and used AI-based image-generation and editing technology to create obscene morphed images, which he uploaded to anonymous Discord servers; after the initial uploads, unknown online users created more explicit AI-generated images and videos, which he reposted. He allegedly operated multiple fake Instagram, Discord and Facebook accounts and several Gmail IDs to stay anonymous. During interrogation he said he knew the complainant from college and that personal resentment had developed after repeated insults. A mobile phone, two SIM cards and other digital evidence were recovered.

Reporting. The Tribune carries the PTI report quoting a senior police officer; the Times of India's Delhi desk carries the same police account. One police chain.

Limits. The dates of the circulation and of the complaint are not stated. The other users who made further images are unidentified.

Reported harm

A woman's face was used in AI-generated obscene images and videos circulated on Discord servers and fake Instagram accounts, and she reported threatening messages intended to humiliate and harass her. Police attribute the initial images and the reposting to the arrested acquaintance and the more explicit images and videos to unidentified users; neither inspected report attributes the threatening messages to any identified person.

Outcome

Ongoing

Case registered at the Cyber Police Station, North Delhi, on the woman's complaint; accused arrested after a technical probe of the linked accounts; mobile phone and two SIM cards recovered; further investigation under way (police statement, 9 September 2026). No charge sheet or court proceeding reported.

What remains unknown

  • The dates of the circulation and of the complaint are not stated; only the arrest announcement (9 September 2026) is dated.
  • The AI tools used are not identified.
  • The other online users who made further images and videos are unidentified.
  • No charge sheet or court proceeding is reported.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. Delhi Police state that the accused used AI-based image-generation and editing technology to create obscene morphed images from photographs taken from the complainant's private account, and that other users then made more explicit AI-generated images and videos which he reposted. The tools are not identified. Both inspected reports carry the police account.

3 claims: 3 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported The 22-year-old complainant reported to the Cyber Police Station in North Delhi that AI-generated obscene photographs and videos using her facial images were being created and circulated through Discord servers and fake Instagram accounts, and that threatening messages were being sent to humiliate and harass her.

Causal attribution. Police account of the complaint (one chain).

  • tribuneindia.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'the 22-year-old woman approached the Cyber Police Station in North Delhi and alleged that unknown persons had created and circulated AI-generated obscene photographs and videos using her facial images'; 'her morphed photographs and videos were being circulated through Discord servers'; 'threatening messages were being sent to her with the intention of humiliating and harassing her'
  • timesofindia.indiatimes.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'Police received a complaint from the 22-year-old woman telling that unknown persons had created and circulated obscene AI-generated photographs and videos using her facial images'
Reported Police arrested a 22-year-old BTech graduate from East Punjabi Bagh, saying he took her photographs from her private account, used AI image-generation and editing tools to create obscene morphed images, uploaded them to anonymous Discord servers and reposted more explicit AI-generated material made by other users, operating multiple fake accounts to stay anonymous.

Causal attribution. Police statement; the accused is untried.

  • tribuneindia.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'A 22-year-old man was arrested for allegedly using photographs of a college acquaintance taken from her private social media account to create obscene AI-generated images and circulate them through fake social media accounts, police said on Wednesday'; 'He obtained photographs of the complainant from her private account and used AI-based image-generation and editing technology to create obscene morphed images'; 'after the initial content was uploaded, unknown online users created more explicit AI-generated images and videos, which he subsequently reposted on the platform'; 'allegedly operated multiple fake Instagram, Discord and Facebook accounts and used several Gmail IDs to maintain anonymity'
  • timesofindia.indiatimes.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'used AI-based tools to create obscene images, which he uploaded on anonymous Discord servers'; 'later reposted more explicit AI-generated images and videos created by other users'
Reported Police say the accused told them he knew the complainant from college and had developed personal resentment after repeated insults; a mobile phone, two SIM cards and other digital evidence were recovered, and investigation continues.

Causal attribution. Police account of the interrogation.

  • tribuneindia.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'he knew the complainant from college and that personal resentment had developed between them following repeated insults'; 'police recovered a mobile phone, two SIM cards'; 'Further investigation is under way'
  • timesofindia.indiatimes.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'he allegedly told police that he knew the woman from college and was resentful of her after repeated insults'

Sources

2 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 live in English on 2026-09-20 (HTTP 200). PTI report quoting a senior police officer. Applies to s1.

Read live in English on 2026-09-20 (HTTP 200). Times of India Delhi report of the same police account. Applies to s2.

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

Complaint at the Cyber Police Station, North Delhi; accused resident of East Punjabi Bagh, Delhi (police statement in both reports). No court proceeding reported.

Reviewed for publication 2026-09-20: Published under the 2026-09-15 charter as a harmful-artifact and harassment case with one identified (unnamed) depicted person, a police complaint and an arrest. Two English reports read, both carrying the Delhi Police account; claims recorded as reported. The complainant is unnamed in the sources; the accused, named by police, is not named here because the case is untried; no image content is described beyond 'obscene AI-generated images'.

People described

A 22-year-old woman, a college acquaintance of the accused (unnamed)

People reported harmed in this case

1 person

0 AI participants · 1 other person harmed

One complainant whose facial images were used (police statement). Exact 1. The accused used the AI tools, so she is counted as another person harmed.

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

Tags

#deepfake#non-consensual-imagery#ai-generated#discord#instagram#harassment#delhi#india#arrest

Cite this case

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

APA

NOPE. (2026). Delhi: a 22-year-old engineering graduate was arrested for turning a college acquaintance's private social-media photographs into AI-generated obscene images uploaded to anonymous Discord servers, and for reposting more explicit AI-generated images and videos that other users made; the complainant also reported threatening messages from anonymous accounts. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-delhi-ai-obscene-images-college-acquaintance-discord

BibTeX

@misc{2026_delhi_ai_obscene_images_college_acquaintance_discord,
  title = {Delhi: a 22-year-old engineering graduate was arrested for turning a college acquaintance's private social-media photographs into AI-generated obscene images uploaded to anonymous Discord servers, and for reposting more explicit AI-generated images and videos that other users made; the complainant also reported threatening messages from anonymous accounts},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-delhi-ai-obscene-images-college-acquaintance-discord}
}

Related cases

Medium Unidentified image tool

Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh: a young woman reported that an unknown person made AI deepfake images placing her face on another man's photo and sent them to her future in-laws' Instagram accounts to break off her marriage; police registered a case against unknown persons

Dainik Bhaskar reported on 19 September 2026 that a young woman in the Chaubepur police-station area of Varanasi complained that an unknown person, who had been calling her repeatedly from an unknown number, created a fake Instagram profile resembling her name, used an AI tool to place her face on another young man's photograph to produce objectionable images, and sent them to the Instagram accounts of her prospective in-laws and her prospective brother-in-law with the aim of breaking off her prospective marriage. Chaubepur police registered a case against unknown persons on the basis of a public-hearing reference (1621/26); the station in-charge said digital information about the phone number and the fake account was being gathered with cyber experts to identify and locate the accused, and that action would follow once the accused's role was clear. The report is a single local account of the complaint; the dates of the images and the complaint are not stated.

High Unidentified image tool

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.

Medium Unidentified image tool

Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh: woman's police complaint alleges a man made an AI obscene image from a photo he took of her, posted it on Facebook and blackmailed her

Dainik Bhaskar reports that police at Belipar station in Gorakhpur district, Uttar Pradesh, registered a first information report on the complaint of a married woman who alleges that a man she met over her sister's family dispute secretly photographed her, made the photo obscene with AI and posted it on Facebook. According to the complaint, he then used the image to blackmail her and pressure her to talk to him, verbally abused her when she objected, threatened to send the photo to her relatives, and on 30 September stopped her on the road and threatened to kill her. The station officer is quoted as saying the case is under investigation. The report rests on the complaint; the tool and the extent of the Facebook circulation are not described.

Medium Unidentified image tool

Woman says a classmate sent an AI-undressed image of her to his contacts; he says his account was hacked, and police refused a case pending an examination

A 23-year-old woman told the news site Kaktus.media that in July 2026 she learned that acquaintances had received a nude image of her made with AI from her photograph, and that the sender was a classmate. She says he first told her an app had generated and sent the image by itself, then admitted that he had undressed her Instagram photo through AI himself. In a written statement to the outlet the accused says he used a Telegram bot offering AI photo processing in May or June 2022 and was shocked by the result, and that the images were sent from his Telegram account on the night of 11 to 12 July 2026 by people who had hacked it. The woman says she suffered severe psychological stress and harm to her reputation. She filed a complaint with a district police department on 21 July; after she complained to the prosecutor's office the matter moved to another district department. That department told Kaktus.media that, because the review period expired before expert results arrived, it had refused to open a criminal case and had ordered a new examination. Her lawyer says four motions filed on 5 August have gone unanswered.

If you or someone you know is struggling, free and confidential support is available. Find a helpline near you at Signpost.

Back to all incidents