Skip to main content
NOPE
High reported severity Investigation Opened

Sonbhadra (Uttar Pradesh): police say a retired official was pressured into transferring about Rs 2.36 crore over one to one-and-a-half months by extortionists who posed as judicial and government officials and used AI-made fake nude images to threaten him; three arrested after a bank manager's alert (September 2026)

Sonbhadra police say a retired official in Uttar Pradesh transferred about Rs 2.36 crore into accounts named by extortionists, including money raised through a loan, before a State Bank of India manager noticed the repeated transfers on 22 September 2026 and alerted the cyber crime police station. At a press briefing on 25 September the superintendent of police said the fraudsters had frightened the man by invoking the higher judiciary and senior government officials (a so-called digital arrest) and had used AI to create fake obscene or nude images to blackmail him with threats of defamation and harm to his family (Times of India, Amar Ujala, ETV Bharat, Newstrack). Police froze about Rs 75 lakh, registered an FIR and arrested three people, including the alleged organiser; the outlets relay one police account, and they describe the AI element differently (images of the victim, or images sent to him during a WhatsApp chat with someone posing as a woman).

AI system
Unidentified image tool
Occurred
Event date unknown
Reported
25 September 2026
Event location
India
What the AI did
Depicted or impersonated the person
Reported harm
Financial LossExploitation or AbusePsychological Distress
Whose AI use
Someone else’s AI use
Setting
Finance · Privacy · Everyday life
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 1 underlying account
3 claims: 3 reported. 5 open questions
People reported harmed
1 person

AI system as recorded: AI image generation tool (unidentified) alleged by police to have been used to create fake nude/obscene 'deepfake' images used for blackmail

What Happened

According to the Sonbhadra superintendent of police and the additional SP (operations), as reported on 25 September 2026, a State Bank of India branch manager alerted the Cyber Crime police station on 22 September that a retired employee was repeatedly transferring large sums into unfamiliar accounts and appeared to be acting under pressure; by the time police reached the bank he had left, and when later found and questioned he said the fraudsters had kept him under a 'digital arrest', claiming to be from the higher judiciary and government departments (Times of India; ETV Bharat; Newstrack). Police said about Rs 2.36 crore was transferred into three bank accounts and that the demands continued (Times of India). Amar Ujala's account of the same briefing adds that the man had been chatting on WhatsApp with someone he believed to be a young woman, that the organiser himself posed as the woman and sent him AI-generated fake and nude pictures, and that with threats to defame him and harm his family he was made to transfer the money over one to one-and-a-half months, sending the savings held in three SBI accounts and also taking a loan; the bank grew suspicious when he prepared to withdraw his provident fund. ETV Bharat reports that AI was misused to create fake obscene pictures of the victim; the Times of India and Newstrack report police saying the accused used AI to create deepfake images and forged documents to intimidate and blackmail. Police froze about Rs 75 lakh, registered an FIR and arrested three people; the alleged organiser is from Mirzapur district and the two women arrested with him are from Raigad district, Maharashtra. The reports do not describe the images in detail, do not say which tool was used, and give no start date for the extortion beyond Amar Ujala's one-to-one-and-a-half-month span.

Reported harm

Police say a retired official lost about Rs 2.36 crore, including borrowed money, to extortion that used a fake judicial 'digital arrest' and AI-made fake nude images with threats of defamation and harm to his family; about Rs 75 lakh was frozen (Sonbhadra police briefing as reported by the Times of India, Amar Ujala, ETV Bharat and Newstrack).

Outcome

Ongoing

An FIR was registered at the Sonbhadra Cyber Crime police station; police froze or placed a hold on about Rs 75 lakh of the transferred money and arrested three people (the alleged organiser, arrested in Prayagraj, and two women from Raigad district, Maharashtra), recovering a car allegedly bought with the proceeds, Rs 2.10 lakh in cash, five phones and a fake Allahabad High Court advocate identity card (Times of India; ETV Bharat; Newstrack). Police said the search for the remaining money and other associates continues.

What remains unknown

  • When the extortion began; Amar Ujala gives a span of one to one-and-a-half months ending around 22 September 2026, and no report gives a start date.
  • Whom the AI-made images showed: ETV Bharat says fake obscene pictures of the victim; Amar Ujala says AI-generated nude pictures were sent to him and that he was threatened with defamation by their being made viral, without saying whom they showed; ETV quotes the SP as saying the accused misused pictures of people taken from Facebook friend lists, without mentioning AI.
  • Which AI tool was used and whether police have examined the images.
  • How the digital-arrest threats and the image-based blackmail related to each other; the outlets frame the same police briefing differently.
  • The sections of law applied and whether charges have been filed; the accused's response.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. Police at the 25 September briefing said the accused used AI to create deepfake images (and forged documents) to intimidate and blackmail (Times of India, Newstrack). ETV Bharat reports the AI images were fake obscene pictures of the victim, which is the basis for the depicted_or_impersonated relation; Amar Ujala says AI-generated fake and nude pictures were sent to him in a WhatsApp chat by the accused posing as a woman, without saying whom they showed. No examination of the images is described. ETV Bharat also quotes the SP as saying the organiser ensnared people from Facebook friend lists and misused their pictures (no AI reference in that passage).

3 claims: 3 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported Police say a retired official in Sonbhadra was made to transfer about Rs 2.36 crore into accounts named by extortionists, who frightened him by posing as or invoking senior judicial and government officials and threatened him using fake nude or obscene images made with AI.

Causal attribution. The Sonbhadra police account (SP and additional SP) as relayed by four outlets; the accused's response is not reported. Whether the images depicted the victim rests on ETV Bharat's wording.

  • timesofindia.indiatimes.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'for allegedly duping a retired official of about ₹2.36 crore in a digital arrest scam by posing as senior judicial and govt officials'; 'misused AI to create deepfake images and forged documents to intimidate and blackmail victims'
  • etvbharat.com(opens in new tab) supports · Hindi
    'AI तकनीक का गलत इस्तेमाल करके पीड़ित की फर्जी अश्लील तस्वीरें भी बना ली गईं. इसी ब्लैकमेलिंग और खौफ के दम पर जालसाजों ने अलग-अलग बैंक खातों में करीब 2 करोड़ 36 लाख रुपये ट्रांसफर करा लिए.'; 'एसपी ने बताया कि मुख्य आरोपी फेसबुक फ्रेंड लिस्ट से लोगों को फंसाता था और उनकी तस्वीरों का गलत इस्तेमाल कर महिला सहयोगियों के साथ मिलकर वसूली करता था.'
  • newstrack.com(opens in new tab) supports · Hindi
    'पुलिस के अनुसार आरोपी एआई तकनीक का इस्तेमाल कर डीपफेक तस्वीरें और फर्जी दस्तावेज तैयार करता था। इन्हीं के जरिए पीड़ित पर दबाव बनाने और रकम वसूलने का आरोप है।'
  • amarujala.com(opens in new tab) supports · Hindi
    'इसका फायदा उठाकर एआई जनित फर्जी व न्यूड तस्वीरें भेजी गई। उन्हें बदनाम करने और परिवार को क्षति पहुंचाने की धमकी देते हुए अलग-अलग खातों में एक से डेढ़ माह के भीतर लगभग 2.36 करोड़ रुपये ट्रांसफर करा लिया गया।'; 'कभी न्यूड फोटो वायरल कर बदनाम कर देने, कभी परिवार को नुकसान पहुंचाने की धमकी देकर एक से डेढ़ माह तक उन्हें ठगी का शिकार बनाते रहे।'
Reported According to Amar Ujala's report of the police briefing, the man had been chatting on WhatsApp with someone he believed to be a young woman, the alleged organiser posed as that woman and sent him AI-made pictures, and he also took a loan to meet the demands.

Causal attribution. Amar Ujala's account of the SP's statement; the other three reports frame the case as a digital arrest without the WhatsApp chat.

  • amarujala.com(opens in new tab) supports · Hindi
    'वह खुद लड़की बनकर पीड़ित से चैट कर रहा था और उसे एआई से बनी तस्वीरें भेज रहा था।'; 'लोन लेकर भी रुपये ट्रांसफर किए'
Reported The case came to light on 22 September 2026 when a State Bank of India manager alerted the Cyber Crime police station that a retired employee was repeatedly transferring large sums and appeared to be under pressure; police froze about Rs 75 lakh, registered an FIR and arrested three people.

Causal attribution. Police account relayed by the Times of India and ETV Bharat.

  • timesofindia.indiatimes.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'the case surfaced on Sept 22 after an SBI branch manager alerted the Cyber Crime Police Station that a retired employee was repeatedly transferring large sums of money and appeared to be acting under pressure'; 'Police said they have frozen or placed a hold on ₹75 lakh of the defrauded amount.'; 'An FIR was registered at the Sonbhadra Cyber Crime police station under relevant legal provisions.'; 'Cyber Crime Police in Sonbhadra arrested three people, including the alleged mastermind'
  • etvbharat.com(opens in new tab) supports · Hindi
    'एक बुजुर्ग रिटायर्ड कर्मचारी लगातार अनजान खातों में बड़ी रकम ट्रांसफर कर रहा है और पूछताछ करने पर घबरा रहा है.'

Sources

4 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 on 2026-09-26 and retained (Times of India, Lucknow city page; English). Relays the SP/ASP account: digital arrest by people posing as judicial and government officials, SBI alert on 22 September, Rs 2.36 crore, Rs 75 lakh frozen, FIR, three arrests, AI deepfake images and forged documents. Applies to s1.

Read live on 2026-09-27 (Amar Ujala, Varanasi/Sonbhadra, 25 September 2026; Hindi). Reports the SP's Friday briefing with a sextortion framing: WhatsApp chat with a supposed woman, AI-generated fake and nude pictures, threats of defamation and harm to family, one to one-and-a-half months of transfers, a loan, the provident-fund withdrawal that alerted the chief manager. Reviewer translation; no human translator. Applies to s2.

Read live on 2026-09-27 (ETV Bharat Hindi, Sonbhadra, 25 September 2026). Digital arrest by fraudsters invoking the higher judiciary; AI misused to create fake obscene pictures of the victim; bank manager's suspicion on 22 September; arrests and recoveries. Reviewer translation. Applies to s3.

Read live on 2026-09-27 (Newstrack, Sonbhadra, 25 September 2026; Hindi). Police account: bank manager's alert, fear of courts and senior officials, Rs 2.36 crore to three accounts, Rs 75 lakh frozen, police say the accused used AI to prepare deepfake pictures and forged documents to pressure the victim. Reviewer translation. Applies to s4.

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

The victim, the bank and the investigating Cyber Crime police station are in Sonbhadra district, Uttar Pradesh (Times of India; ETV Bharat places the bank branch in Robertsganj); the accused were arrested in Prayagraj and are from Mirzapur (Uttar Pradesh) and Raigad (Maharashtra). No court proceeding is reported.

Reviewed for publication 2026-09-27: Published under the 2026-09-15 charter as an AI-assisted extortion case with a registered FIR and arrests, reported by four outlets from one Sonbhadra police briefing (one independence group; all claims reported). The victim and the accused are not named and the images are not described.

People described

A retired official (reported as a retired officer or retired employee; not named) in Sonbhadra district, Uttar Pradesh; ETV Bharat describes him as elderly

People reported harmed in this case

1 person

0 AI participants · 1 other person harmed

One person, the retired official who made the transfers (all four reports). Police say the accused used such images against 'victims' generally (Times of India), but no other victim is identified, so the case count is exactly one.

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

Tags

#deepfake#sextortion#digital-arrest#financial-fraud#whatsapp#elderly#india#uttar-pradesh#sonbhadra

Cite this case

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

APA

NOPE. (2026). Sonbhadra (Uttar Pradesh): police say a retired official was pressured into transferring about Rs 2.36 crore over one to one-and-a-half months by extortionists who posed as judicial and government officials and used AI-made fake nude images to threaten him; three arrested after a bank manager's alert (September 2026). AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-sonbhadra-retired-official-ai-nude-images-digital-arrest-extortion

BibTeX

@misc{2026_sonbhadra_retired_official_ai_nude_images_digital_arrest_extortion,
  title = {Sonbhadra (Uttar Pradesh): police say a retired official was pressured into transferring about Rs 2.36 crore over one to one-and-a-half months by extortionists who posed as judicial and government officials and used AI-made fake nude images to threaten him; three arrested after a bank manager's alert (September 2026)},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-sonbhadra-retired-official-ai-nude-images-digital-arrest-extortion}
}

Related cases

High Unidentified image tool

Bahia police say four teenagers extorted a girl with an intimate image made with AI; she paid R$8,300 and police recovered R$6,300

A 12-year-old girl in Vitória da Conquista, in the south-west of Bahia, Brazil, was threatened from 14 October 2026 by a 15-year-old who said he had intimate images of her and demanded money not to post them on social media. Frightened, she secretly took R$8,300 from money her father kept and handed it over; the suspect then demanded a further R$10,000. According to the Bahia Civil Police, its investigation found that the image used in the threats had been produced with artificial intelligence to simulate intimate content of the girl. On 23 October police identified the 15-year-old and three other adolescents aged 14 to 16 as suspects, recovered R$6,300 and an electric bicycle bought with part of the money, and returned the money to her father. The police opened a juvenile offence procedure and sent it to the Childhood and Youth Court. How police established that the image was AI-made is not disclosed.

Medium Unidentified video tool

Bengaluru: police say a man paid Rs 1.85 lakh after a dating-app contact threatened to circulate an AI-manipulated obscene video of him

Deccan Herald reports, citing Bengaluru police, that a 23-year-old man lost Rs 1.85 lakh in an alleged sextortion scam. He matched with a woman on a dating app on 27 September 2026 and exchanged numbers; he told police that he then received a WhatsApp video call from her number lasting five to six seconds. Police said he then received an obscene video manipulated using AI and the sender threatened to circulate it unless he paid. Fearing exposure, he borrowed money from a friend and transferred Rs 1.85 lakh to several UPI IDs between 27 and 29 September as the threats continued, a police officer said. Police registered a first information report on his online cybercrime complaint and are trying to trace the suspects. The report does not say how police established that the video was AI-manipulated, and the tool is not named.

Medium Unidentified image tool

Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh: a woman is arrested and later refused bail after a railway officer's wife complained that she sent an AI-made objectionable image of the officer, demanded ₹15 lakh and threatened to circulate pictures of women in the family

Jhansi police arrested a 27-year-old woman in Prayagraj in September 2026 on charges of editing photos with AI, blackmail and extortion, after the wife of a senior railway officer living in Jhansi filed an FIR on 2 August 2026. According to the complaint as relayed by Aaj Tak, UP Tak, Dainik Bhaskar and Amar Ujala, the woman threatened to circulate objectionable pictures of women in the family, demanded ₹15 lakh and threatened to kill the family, and out of fear the family paid her ₹40,000 in total on different dates between January and June 2026. On 31 July she sent an objectionable image of the officer to his wife's phone, an image police say she made with AI. Aaj Tak places the ₹15 lakh demand after that image; Dainik Bhaskar reports the complaint as dating the demand and a death threat to the woman's visit to the family's government house on 2 June. Police recovered two phones and a laptop, and Amar Ujala reports that police will have the images examined forensically. On 1 October 2026 an Additional Sessions Judge in Jhansi rejected the woman's bail plea. In police custody after her arrest she said the FIR against her was fake. The images were not inspected.

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.

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