The Gujarat police in Ahmedabad announced the arrest of a Congress leader and an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) member for allegedly sharing a deep fake video of Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The video purportedly showed Shah announcing the reduction of reservation rights for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), and Other Backward Classes (OBCs).

The arrested individuals are Satish Vansola from Palanpur and Rakesh Baria from Limkheda. Vansola has been associated with Congress MLA Jignesh Mevani for six years, serving as his Personal Assistant (PA) and also holds positions in the Congress and the Dalit community. Baria has served as the AAP’s Dahod district president for four years.

They were booked under sections 153A and 505(2) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for promoting enmity between different groups and making statements to create or promote enmity, hatred, or ill-will between classes.

The police stated that Vansola and Baria shared the edited video on Facebook with the intention to sow discord between reserved and unreserved castes ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Investigations are ongoing to identify the person who edited the video.

In response to Vansola’s arrest, Mevani expressed disappointment, emphasizing that Vansola is like a brother to him and accusing the BJP’s IT Cell of spreading fake videos. He criticized the police for arresting Vansola instead of taking action against those responsible for creating the fake videos.

The BJP lodged a complaint with the Election Commission against the Congress, alleging the circulation of a deep fake and morphed video of Amit Shah to disrupt the electoral process and demanded strict action.

Earlier, the Special Cell of the Delhi Police registered an FIR after the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) filed a complaint about the doctored video of Shah, where his statements regarding reservations for Muslims in Telangana were altered to suggest advocating the scrapping of all reservations.