Amit Shah deepfake video: Five Telangana Congress workers arrested by Hyderabad police, out on bail

Hyderabad: The city police on Friday said they arrested five Telangana Congress party social media activists in connection with Union Home Minister Amit Shah's alleged morphed video that went viral recently.

The accused were produced before a local court which granted them bail with a condition that each person will have to submit two sureties worth Rs 10,000 each and appear before the investigating officer on Monday and Friday till further orders.

According to a statement issued by the police, they received a complaint on April 27 from a state BJP leader alleging that the Telangana Congress Pradesh Congress Party on its X account posted morphed or fabricated video of Amit Shah's speech during his election campaign and public meeting at Siddipet recently, in violation of IT Act.

The deliberate and mischievous act of morphing the video is aimed at misleading people and voters creating fear amongst the OBC communities, the police said, adding they registered a case under Sections 469 (forgery), 505(1)C (circulating rumour), 171G (spreading false information), among others.

According to police, on April 23, during a public meeting in Medak, Amit Shah made a speech. The A1 received a morphed video and uploaded it on the '@INCTelangana' handle on X besides sharing it on various WhatsApp groups while A2 to A5 saw the video and further shared it to their individual X handles.

When notified by X about the sensitivity of the content, the video was deleted, they said.

Earlier, the Delhi Police summoned Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy on May 1 for questioning in a case of a doctored video of Amit Shah.