Low reported severity Media Coverage

Phagwara, Punjab: after unrest at Lovely Professional University, a video of the local Superintendent of Police circulates with an AI-made voice saying a relative of the Union Home Minister was behind the violence; Punjab Police call it fake (CyberPeace dates a Kapurthala Police post to 29 September 2026) and a fact-checker finds the original footage

India TV reported on 30 September 2026 that, after violence at Lovely Professional University in Punjab, a video of Phagwara's Superintendent of Police went viral in which the officer's voice claims that a relative of the Union Home Minister was behind the violence and that a police team had gone to Delhi to find him. Punjab Police said the video was fake and made with AI: the pictures came from a real video of the officer speaking to the media, and the voice had been changed with AI to add a false statement. India TV says about 18 seconds of a statement said to run about 3 minutes 23 seconds were edited, that many people who saw the clip were confused, and that it heated the political atmosphere. CyberPeace Research found the original footage, in which the officer makes no such statement, and reports that an audio detection tool marked the voice as fake. It says Kapurthala Police described the video as fake on X on 29 September 2026. Who made the clip is not reported.

AI system: Unidentified voice-cloning tool
Occurred: Sept 2026
Reported: 30 September 2026
Event location: India

What the AI did: Depicted or impersonated the person
Reported harm: Reputational Harm

Whose AI use: Someone else’s AI use
Setting: Work

Evidence: AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources; 5 claims: 5 reported. 4 open questions
People reported harmed: 1 person

AI system as recorded: Unidentified AI voice tool used, according to Punjab Police, to replace the officer's voice in real footage with a false statement; CyberPeace reports that the detection tool Resemble AI marked the voice as fake

What Happened

The clip. India TV reports that after violence at Lovely Professional University (LPU) in Punjab on a Saturday and Sunday, a video of Phagwara's Superintendent of Police went viral on the following Tuesday. In it the officer's voice says a relative of the Union Home Minister was behind the violence, that he was hiding in Delhi and that a special police team had been sent there. CyberPeace quotes the clip's audio and the caption posted with it.

How it was made. Punjab Police said the pictures were from a real video and that the officer's voice had been changed with AI to add a false statement (India TV). India TV reports that the officer had spoken to the media at the scene, that the original statement is said to run about 3 minutes 23 seconds, and that about 18 seconds were edited with AI. CyberPeace Research found the original video on a news channel's YouTube account, uploaded on 27 September, and says the officer makes no statement about the minister's relative in it. It reports that the detection tool Resemble AI marked the officer's voice in the viral clip as fake.

Effect. India TV says the clip looked real, that many people who saw it on social media were confused, and that the political atmosphere heated up after it spread. Police asked people not to trust or share such content.

Limits. The reports do not say who made the clip, how widely it spread or whether a case was registered. The AI finding rests on the police statement and one detection tool. The reports also cover allegations about the campus violence itself, which are outside this record.

Reported harm

A false statement about the campus violence was put in a police officer's mouth with an AI-made voice and spread on social media, where India TV says many viewers were confused; Punjab Police declared the video fake (India TV; CyberPeace).

Outcome

Unknown

Punjab Police said the video was fake and made with AI and asked people not to trust or share it (India TV). CyberPeace reports that Kapurthala Police described the video as fake on its official X handle on 29 September 2026. No report says a case was registered over the clip or that its maker was identified.

What remains unknown

Who made the clip and which voice tool was used.
How widely the clip spread and whether platforms removed it.
Whether police registered a case over the clip.
The calendar date on which the clip first appeared (between the 27 September upload of the original and the 29 September police post).

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. Punjab Police said the officer's voice in real footage was changed with AI to add a false statement (India TV). CyberPeace found the original footage without the statement and reports that the detection tool Resemble AI marked the voice as fake. The clip impersonates the officer (depicted_or_impersonated). No voice tool is named and the maker is not identified.

5 claims: 5 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported India TV reports that a video circulated in which the officer's voice says a relative of the Union Home Minister was behind the campus violence; CyberPeace describes the clip as saying the involvement of an alleged relative of the minister had surfaced in the case. Punjab Police, as relayed by India TV, and CyberPeace, which compared the clip with the original footage, say the officer made no such statement in the original.

Causal attribution. Police statement relayed by India TV, and the fact-checker's own comparison with the original footage. The two reports describe the clip's wording differently, so the claim is held at reported.

indiatv.in(opens in new tab) supports · Hindi
'वीडियो में उनकी आवाज में दावा किया गया कि यूनिवर्सिटी में शनिवार और रविवार को हुई हिंसा में केंद्रीय गृह मंत्री अमित शाह के एक रिश्तेदार का हाथ है'; 'इसमें दिखाई देने वाले दृश्य असली वीडियो के हैं, लेकिन एसपी की आवाज को AI की मदद से बदलकर नकली बयान जोड़ा गया है'
cyberpeace.org(opens in new tab) supports · English
'the involvement of an alleged relative of Amit Shah had surfaced in the case and that a police team had been sent to Delhi to arrest him'; 'In the original video, the Punjab Police officer did not make any such statement while responding to questions from the media'

Reported Punjab Police said the video was fake and made with AI, with the officer's voice changed to add a false statement; CyberPeace reports that an audio detection tool marked the voice as fake.

Causal attribution. The AI attribution rests on the police statement and one detection tool; the basis of the police finding is not described.

indiatv.in(opens in new tab) supports · Hindi
'बाद में पंजाब पुलिस ने साफ किया कि यह वीडियो फर्जी है और AI की मदद से तैयार किया गया है'; 'इसमें दिखाई देने वाले दृश्य असली वीडियो के हैं, लेकिन एसपी की आवाज को AI की मदद से बदलकर नकली बयान जोड़ा गया है'
cyberpeace.org(opens in new tab) supports · English
'we analyzed the audio in the video using the AI detection tool Resemble AI. The tool identified the voice of the police officer in the video as fake'; 'CyberPeace Research found that the original video has been digitally manipulated using AI and is being circulated with a misleading claim'

Reported CyberPeace reports that Kapurthala Police described the video as fake on its official X handle on 29 September 2026.

Causal attribution. The fact-checker's account of the police post; the post itself was not read.

cyberpeace.org(opens in new tab) supports · English
'The Kapurthala Police posted on its official X handle on September 29, 2026, describing the video as fake'

Reported India TV reports that about 18 seconds of the officer's statement were edited with AI, that many people who saw the clip on social media were confused, and that the political atmosphere heated up after it spread.

Causal attribution. India TV's own description; no measure of reach is given.

indiatv.in(opens in new tab) supports · Hindi
'इसी वीडियो में से करीब 18 सेकंड के हिस्से को AI की मदद से एडिट करके सोशल मीडिया पर फैलाया गया'; 'सोशल मीडिया पर इसे देखकर कई लोग भ्रमित हो गए'; 'वीडियो वायरल होने के बाद राजनीतिक माहौल भी गरमा गया'

Reported Police asked people not to trust or share such fake content.

Causal attribution. Police appeal as relayed by India TV.

indiatv.in(opens in new tab) supports · Hindi
'पुलिस ने लोगों से ऐसे फर्जी कंटेंट पर भरोसा नहीं करने और उसे शेयर करने से बचने की अपील की है'

Sources

2 sources inspected. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

India TV (Hindi), 30 September 2026: AI deepfake video in the Phagwara SP's voice goes viral after LPU violence, police call it fake(opens in new tab)
s1 · indiatv.in · News report · Hindi · Inspected · 30 September 2026 · Primary
CyberPeace, 30 September 2026: Fact check, fake AI-edited video falsely attributes LPU case remark to Punjab Police officer(opens in new tab)
s2 · cyberpeace.org · News report · English · Inspected

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read in Hindi by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-05 (India TV, published 30 September 2026); no human translator reviewed it. Relays the Punjab Police clarification and mentions an independent fact-check without naming it. The page also reports allegations about a student seen in the original footage, which are not used. Hindi 'फर्जी' is rendered as fake and 'एसपी' as Superintendent of Police. Applies to s1.

Read in English on 2026-10-05 (CyberPeace, dated 30 September 2026). The fact-checker's own comparison with the original footage and its audio test; it also cites the Kapurthala Police post on X. The saved page carries an unrelated older fact-check below the article, which is not used. Applies to s2.

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

The officer is the Superintendent of Police of Phagwara and the clip concerns violence at Lovely Professional University in Punjab, India (India TV). Where the clip was made is not reported. No court step is reported.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-05: Published under the 2026-09-15 charter: a police officer's media statement was altered with an AI-made voice to attribute a false claim about campus violence, and police declared it fake. Two chains were read (the police statement via India TV, and CyberPeace's comparison with the original footage). All claims are reported. The officer is referred to by role.

People described

The Superintendent of Police of Phagwara, a public official whose media statement was altered (referred to by role)

People reported harmed in this case

1 person

0 AI participants · 1 other person harmed

One person, the police officer, is reported as having a false statement attributed with an AI-made voice (India TV; CyberPeace). Viewers who were confused and the unnamed relative mentioned in the clip are not counted.

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

Cite this case

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

APA

NOPE. (2026). Phagwara, Punjab: after unrest at Lovely Professional University, a video of the local Superintendent of Police circulates with an AI-made voice saying a relative of the Union Home Minister was behind the violence; Punjab Police call it fake (CyberPeace dates a Kapurthala Police post to 29 September 2026) and a fact-checker finds the original footage. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-phagwara-lpu-unrest-ai-voice-deepfake-police-superintendent-false-statement

BibTeX

@misc{2026_phagwara_lpu_unrest_ai_voice_deepfake_police_superintendent_false_statement,
  title = {Phagwara, Punjab: after unrest at Lovely Professional University, a video of the local Superintendent of Police circulates with an AI-made voice saying a relative of the Union Home Minister was behind the violence; Punjab Police call it fake (CyberPeace dates a Kapurthala Police post to 29 September 2026) and a fact-checker finds the original footage},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-phagwara-lpu-unrest-ai-voice-deepfake-police-superintendent-false-statement}
}

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