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Surat, India: a deepfake video of Rajya Sabha MP Govind Dholakia was used to run an 'old coin' buying fraud; two men arrested and nine cybercrime complaints linked to their accounts

Surat Cyber Crime Police said a publicly available video of Rajya Sabha MP and diamond industrialist Govind Dholakia was manipulated with AI, its audio replaced by a voice-over in which he appeared to say that people holding old coins or currency notes could contact a number and receive lakhs or crores of rupees. The video circulated on Facebook and Instagram alongside fake 'Old Coin Company' profiles using his photos; people who responded were asked to pay Rs 1,000 to 1,500 by UPI as processing or registration fees and were told of a fabricated Reserve Bank of India warning to win their trust. After members of the public contacted Dholakia, his organisation SRK complained to police. Investigators traced the operation to Nuh in Haryana and arrested two men, aged 25 and 30, from Thathaula village; ten bank accounts were linked to them, and nine complaints on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal from across India, totalling about Rs 9.84 crore, were connected to those accounts.

AI System

AI video manipulation with a replaced voice-over impersonating MP Govind Dholakia (tools not named)

Occurred

Event date unknown

Reported

16 September 2026

Event location

India

Platform

other

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. Surat police say the accused used artificial intelligence to manipulate the MP's videos and photographs and replace the audio with a voice-over; no forensic detail is published. The artifact depicted and impersonated a public figure; victims dealt with the fraudsters through fake profiles and UPI payments.

AI-to-person relation

  • Depicted or impersonated the person

Core relations are communication, acting on someone’s behalf, and depiction or impersonation. Decision and claim relations are retained as contextual cases.

Someone else’s AI use. Settings: Finance, Everyday life, Justice.

Claim status: Reported

A publicly available video of MP Govind Dholakia was manipulated with AI and re-voiced to promote high-value old-coin deals; fake 'Old Coin Company' Facebook profiles used his images; his organisation SRK complained to Surat Cyber Crime Police after members of the public contacted him.

Causal attribution: Police account reported by India Today; single chain.

  • News report (supports): 'used artificial intelligence to manipulate publicly available videos and photographs of Dholakia, replacing the original audio with a voice-over'; 'created multiple fake Facebook profiles using the name "Old Coin Company"'; 'his organisation, SRK, to approach the Surat Cyber Crime Police'.

Claim status: Reported

Victims were asked to pay Rs 1,000 to 1,500 by UPI as fees; police arrested two men from Nuh, Haryana, linked ten bank accounts to them and connected nine NCRP complaints totalling about Rs 9.84 crore to those accounts.

Causal attribution: Police account reported by India Today; the Rs 9.84 crore figure is the police total for the linked complaints, not necessarily the coin scheme alone.

  • News report (supports): 'Victims were then asked to transfer amounts ranging from Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500 through UPI'; 'Nine complaints registered on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP) across the country have been linked to these accounts, with the total fraud amount reported at approximately Rs 9.84 crore'; 'arresting the two men'.

What remains unknown

  • How much of the Rs 9.84 crore came from the coin scheme versus other frauds through the same accounts is not stated.
  • When the video began circulating is not stated.
  • Whether the two men have been charged and the case number are not reported.
  • The AI tools used are not identified.
Source reading, translation and location

News report · en · Source inspected

Read in English on 2026-09-18 via the MSN content API copy of the India Today report (16 Sep 2026), which names the source URL; it carries the Surat Cyber Crime Police account.

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

Complaint and investigation in Surat, Gujarat; arrests in Nuh, Haryana; complainants 'across the country' on the NCRP (India Today). No court proceeding reported yet.

Reviewed for publication 2026-09-18: Published under the 2026-09-15 charter as an impersonation-fraud case with reported financial harm to identified complainants and a police investigation with arrests. One reputable news chain carrying the police account was read; all claims are recorded as reported. Complainants unnamed; the MP is a public figure named in the police complaint.

What Happened

According to India Today's report of the Surat Cyber Crime Police investigation (16 September 2026), the accused used AI to manipulate publicly available videos and photographs of Govind Dholakia, replacing the original audio with a voice-over so that the MP appeared to promote high-value deals in old coins and notes: viewers with old currency were told to contact a number and receive lakhs or crores. They created multiple fake Facebook profiles under the name 'Old Coin Company' using his images, approached people with offers to buy old coins at high prices, and asked victims to transfer Rs 1,000 to 1,500 through UPI as processing, registration and other fees, backing this with misleading claims about a Reserve Bank of India warning on high-value coin trading. The video spread on Facebook and Instagram; after members of the public contacted Dholakia, SRK complained to the police, stating that his photographs, videos and identity had been misused to create fake accounts. Technical analysis led police to Nuh, Haryana, where two men described as associated with the 'Mewati gang' were arrested. Police linked ten bank accounts to them and nine complaints registered on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal, with a reported total of about Rs 9.84 crore; the report does not state how much of that sum came from the coin scheme alone.

Reported harm

People who responded to an AI-manipulated video of an MP paid fees to fraudsters; police linked nine cybercrime complaints totalling about Rs 9.84 crore to the accused's bank accounts. The MP's identity and likeness were misused, prompting his organisation to complain.

Financial LossReputational Harm

Outcome

Ongoing

After the video circulated and members of the public contacted Dholakia, his organisation SRK complained to Surat Cyber Crime Police, clarifying he was not involved. Police traced social-media accounts, mobile numbers and transactions to Nuh district, Haryana, carried out reconnaissance and a covert operation, and arrested two residents of Thathaula village (25 and 30). Ten bank accounts were linked to the accused and nine NCRP complaints from across the country, totalling about Rs 9.84 crore, were tied to those accounts. Further proceedings are not reported.

People described

People across India who paid 'processing' or 'registration' fees after responding to the deepfake video and fake profiles; nine complainants on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal were linked to the accused's bank accounts. MP Govind Dholakia's likeness and identity were misused. No complainant is named.

People reported harmed in this case

At least 9 people

0 AI participants · 9 other people harmed

Police linked nine complaints on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal to the accused's bank accounts (India Today). Each complaint is treated as one complainant; the reported Rs 9.84 crore total may include other frauds through the same accounts, and people who paid small fees without complaining are uncounted. Documented minimum of nine.

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

Tags

#deepfake#voice-over#public-figure-impersonation#fraud#india#gujarat#surat#haryana#facebook#instagram#upi

Cite this case

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

APA

NOPE. (2026). Surat, India: a deepfake video of Rajya Sabha MP Govind Dholakia was used to run an 'old coin' buying fraud; two men arrested and nine cybercrime complaints linked to their accounts. NOPE: AI and people. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-surat-mp-dholakia-deepfake-old-coin-fraud

BibTeX

@misc{2026_surat_mp_dholakia_deepfake_old_coin_fraud,
  title = {Surat, India: a deepfake video of Rajya Sabha MP Govind Dholakia was used to run an 'old coin' buying fraud; two men arrested and nine cybercrime complaints linked to their accounts},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {NOPE: AI and people},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-surat-mp-dholakia-deepfake-old-coin-fraud}
}

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