Guntur man arrested in Rashmika Mandanna deep fake video case

Eemani Naveen, a native of Pedanandipadu village in Guntur allegedly created the deep fake to boost his followers on Instagram.

Hyderabad: The Delhi Police has arrested an engineer in connection with the deepfake video of Bollywood actor Rashmika Mandanna which went viral on social media last year.

Eemani Naveen, a native of Pedanandipadu village in Guntur of Andhra Pradesh allegedly created the deep fake to boost his followers on Instagram.

---

The Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) Unit of Special Cell, Delhi Police arrested Naveen after analysing around 500 social media accounts.

Deputy Commissioner of Police, IFSO Unit, Hemant Tiwari said that Naveen used to run a fan page for Rashmika Mandanna and also created two more fan pages for another two noted celebrities.

To boost the followers of Rashmika Mandanna’s fan page, he created and posted the deepfake video on October 13, 2023.

The tactic successfully increased the fan following from 90,000 to 1,08,000 within two weeks.

However, as the deepfake video gained national attention and drew widespread criticism, Naveen panicked and deleted the posts from the Instagram channel.

Naveen completed his B.Tech from Adhi College of Engineering and Technology in 2021. He also pursued a digital certification course in Digital Marketing from Google Garage in 2019.

The accused has been brought to Delhi and will soon be produced in court, said the officer, adding that “it is a bailable offence but we will seek his police custody as we have to retrieve deleted digital data from his devices”.