Bengaluru Police Probe Deepfake Video of Nirmala Sitharaman Used in Investment Scam

Bengaluru Police have registered a criminal case following the circulation of a sophisticated deepfake video that falsely depicts Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman promoting a dubious investment scheme. The manipulated footage, which surfaced on Facebook, has been designed to exploit public trust in the minister’s image for financial fraud.

The complaint, lodged on November 24 by a Sub-Inspector at Malleshwaram Police Station, highlights how the fabricated video is being disseminated through multiple social media pages with the explicit intent of deceiving viewers into investing in a fraudulent financial product. Authorities have warned that the realistic nature of the deepfake could lead to substantial monetary losses for unsuspecting citizens.

The Cyber Crime unit has launched an investigation to identify the originators of the video and determine the full extent of the scam network. Officers are also examining whether additional deepfake clips featuring the Finance Minister or other prominent figures are being prepared or distributed as part of a larger organised fraud operation.

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This incident follows the Finance Minister’s own warning about the growing menace of deepfakes, delivered during her address at the Global FinTech Fest 2025 in Mumbai on October 7. She had cautioned that advanced artificial intelligence tools were being weaponised to “hack trust” by cloning voices and creating lifelike videos capable of large-scale deception.

Sitharaman had urged the fintech ecosystem, regulators, and law enforcement agencies to urgently strengthen safeguards against such misuse of technology, emphasising that the rapid evolution of AI demands equally swift and robust countermeasures to protect citizens from sophisticated new-generation fraud.

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