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India: AI deepfake videos of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Vijay offering 'financial assistance' were used to defraud people in Madhya Pradesh and other states; a Rajasthan man was arrested

In 2026 AI-generated videos showing a simulated Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay speaking in a fabricated Hindi voice circulated on Facebook and other platforms, urging viewers to contact a WhatsApp number to receive money for education, medical treatment and other needs. The Tamil Nadu Crime Branch-CID detected the videos during routine monitoring, registered a case on 1 September 2026 under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Information Technology Act, and traced the scheme to Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. On 12 September a 28-year-old man from Alwar district was arrested with Rajasthan Police, brought to Tamil Nadu on a transit warrant and remanded in judicial custody; a phone, SIM cards and a CPU were seized. Investigators traced a man in Madhya Pradesh who had lost money, and said people in several states were cheated. The CB-CID is also examining similar videos posted from Facebook accounts suspected to be run from Pakistan.

AI System

AI deepfake video and synthetic Hindi voice-over of Chief Minister Vijay (tools not named)

Occurred

Sept 2026

Reported

14 September 2026

Event location

India

Platform

other

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. Police describe AI-generated videos with a simulated likeness of the Chief Minister and a fabricated Hindi voice; no forensic detail is published. The AI artifact depicted and impersonated a public figure; the defrauded people dealt with the fraudsters over WhatsApp.

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: Corroborated

AI-generated videos showing a simulated Chief Minister Vijay with a Hindi voice-over asked viewers to contact a WhatsApp number for financial aid; the CB-CID registered a case on 1 September 2026 and on 12 September a 28-year-old Alwar man was arrested and remanded in Tamil Nadu.

Causal attribution: Reported by the Rajasthan police side (TOI) and the Tamil Nadu CB-CID side (India Today) independently.

  • News report (supports): 'deepfake videos in which Vijay was shown speaking in Hindi and asking people to contact a WhatsApp number'; 'arrested on September 12 and handed over to Tamil Nadu Police'; 'A case was registered in Tamil Nadu on Sept 1'.
  • News report (supports): 'an AI-generated version of Vijay speaking in a fabricated Hindi voice'; 'arrested on September 12 in Alwar district'; 'registered a case on September 1'.

Claim status: Reported

People in Madhya Pradesh and other states lost money to the scheme; the CB-CID traced a Madhya Pradesh man who lost money and recorded his statement.

Causal attribution: Police account; TOI's Rajasthan-side wording ('attempts were made to cheat') is weaker than the CB-CID's ('lost money'), so the claim is recorded as reported.

  • News report (supports): 'used to cheat several people in Madhya Pradesh and other states'; 'The CBCID also traced a man in Madhya Pradesh who had lost money in the fraud'.
  • News report (supports): 'the scam had already claimed victims in Madhya Pradesh and other states'; 'statements from a victim in Madhya Pradesh'.
  • News report (supports): 'attempts were made to cheat people in several states, including Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan'.

What remains unknown

  • The number of defrauded people and the amounts lost are not published.
  • When the videos began circulating is not stated; the case was registered on 1 September.
  • Whether the accused acted alone and who operates the Pakistan-linked accounts remain under investigation.
  • The AI tools used are not identified.
Source reading, translation and location

News report · en · Source inspected

Read in English on 2026-09-18 (Times of India, Jaipur, 16 Sep 2026). Rajasthan-side account with Alwar SP and Lakshmangarh station quotations.

News report · en · Source inspected

Read in English on 2026-09-18 (India Today, 14 Sep 2026). CB-CID account including the Madhya Pradesh victim and the Pakistan-linked accounts.

This source shares an underlying account with another listed source.

News report · en · Source inspected

Read in English on 2026-09-18 via the MSN content API copy (Udayavani/PTI, 15 Sep 2026). Official-release account; same chain as the CB-CID statement.

This source shares an underlying account with another listed source.

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

Case registered by the Tamil Nadu CB-CID; arrest in Alwar district, Rajasthan; victims traced in Madhya Pradesh (India Today, TOI). Remand in Tamil Nadu.

Reviewed for publication 2026-09-18: Published under the 2026-09-15 charter as an impersonation-fraud case with a documented human consequence: a public figure's likeness and voice were fabricated to solicit money and at least one identified victim lost money, with an arrest and remand. Three sources read across two independent reporting chains; defrauded people unnamed; the accused is not named here because outlets spell his name inconsistently.

What Happened

The Tamil Nadu Crime Branch-CID said its crime division found Facebook videos in which a simulated likeness of Chief Minister Vijay, with a Hindi voice-over, urged the public to contact a WhatsApp number to receive financial aid. After an official complaint the CB-CID Cyber Crime Cell registered a case on 1 September 2026. Information from the service provider and analysis of fake accounts and digital logs pointed to suspects in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, and two special teams were dispatched. On 12 September a 28-year-old resident of Butoli village under Lakshmangarh police station in Alwar district was arrested in a raid conducted with Lakshmangarh police (Alwar SP Sudhir Chaudhary confirmed the arrest and handover to the Tamil Nadu team, per the Times of India). He was brought to Tamil Nadu on a transit warrant and remanded. Investigators said the deepfake videos had been used to cheat people in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and other states, and that a Madhya Pradesh victim's statement and evidence strengthened the case. The CB-CID also said similar videos were being shared from Facebook accounts suspected to originate in Pakistan and is investigating whether they had help inside India. Tamil Nadu Police urged the public not to contact numbers or join WhatsApp groups promoted in such videos. Spellings of the accused's name vary across outlets (Shayabu, Shayabhu, Saibu Khan); he is not named in this record.

Reported harm

People in Madhya Pradesh and other states lost money after responding to AI deepfake videos of the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister promising financial help; the Chief Minister's likeness and voice were fabricated for the fraud. One victim's loss is documented through his police statement; the number and amounts are not published.

Financial LossReputational Harm

Outcome

Ongoing

1 September 2026: CB-CID Cyber Crime Cell registers a case under BNS provisions including cheating and forgery and Sections 66C/66D of the IT Act after detecting the videos. Special teams sent to Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh on digital evidence. 12 September: the accused arrested at Butoli village, Lakshmangarh (Alwar district) with local police; mobile phone, SIM cards and CPU seized; taken to Tamil Nadu on a prisoner-transit warrant and remanded in judicial custody. Police facilitated removal of the videos and are probing whether he acted alone and who runs the Pakistan-linked accounts. No trial date is reported.

People described

People in Madhya Pradesh and other Indian states who paid money after contacting the WhatsApp number; one man in Madhya Pradesh gave a statement to police. The Chief Minister's likeness was misused. None of the defrauded people is named.

People reported harmed in this case

At least 1 person

0 AI participants · 1 other person harmed

Additional affected people are described without a reliable count.

The CB-CID traced one man in Madhya Pradesh who lost money and gave a statement (India Today; Newspoint/PTI); police say people in 'several states' were cheated without a count. One counted plus unquantified others: partial. The Chief Minister is not counted as a harmed person.

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

Tags

#deepfake#voice-clone#public-figure-impersonation#fraud#india#tamil-nadu#rajasthan#madhya-pradesh#facebook#whatsapp

Cite this case

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

APA

NOPE. (2026). India: AI deepfake videos of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Vijay offering 'financial assistance' were used to defraud people in Madhya Pradesh and other states; a Rajasthan man was arrested. NOPE: AI and people. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-tamil-nadu-cm-vijay-deepfake-financial-aid-fraud

BibTeX

@misc{2026_tamil_nadu_cm_vijay_deepfake_financial_aid_fraud,
  title = {India: AI deepfake videos of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Vijay offering 'financial assistance' were used to defraud people in Madhya Pradesh and other states; a Rajasthan man was arrested},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {NOPE: AI and people},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-tamil-nadu-cm-vijay-deepfake-financial-aid-fraud}
}

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