Hyderabad police bust AI-driven extortion and defamation racket

Hyderabad police detained two men for using AI tools in a criminal conspiracy involving harassment, stalking and extortion. The accused targeted a woman and her daughter, fabricated audio clips and circulated them online to defame BJYM leader PM Sai Prasad.

Hyderabad: The Alwal police have detained two men, identified as Rupesh Raj and E N Ravi Kumar alias Rafi, for allegedly orchestrating a criminal conspiracy involving harassment, stalking, extortion and the use of artificial intelligence to fabricate defamatory content.

According to investigators, the case involved targeted harassment of a woman at a local gym, where Rupesh Raj allegedly issued threats and engaged in intimidation.

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The harassment later escalated to stalking her 12-year-old daughter, installing a tracking device in the family’s car and recording private phone conversations without consent.

Police said the suspects also attempted to extort Rs 10 lakh by threatening to manipulate the woman’s audio clips using AI-based tools. When the extortion failed, they allegedly fabricated and circulated a doctored audio clip on social media, falsely implicating BJYM National Treasurer PM Sai Prasad in a harassment case. The content was uploaded on YouTube and widely shared on WhatsApp to tarnish reputations.

Investigators recovered a tracking device, call logs and digital evidence of the manipulated clip. Both accused were taken into custody, while police continue to probe their wider network.

Police sources confirmed that Ravi Kumar has a prior criminal record, including cases of cheating, blackmail and harassment, with a history of exploiting women through recorded material.