DEEPFAKE video of cop claiming LPU rape accused is BJP worker goes viral

Rumours of a student’s rape within the Lovely Professional University campus in Punjab’s Phagwara led to protests that turned violent on the intervening night of September 26 and 27. Parts of the campus were vandalised, and there was looting as well.A video now going viral shows a Sikh police officer saying: “We have been receiving information that the accused is a BJP worker and a relative of the home minister. This incident happened in GH3 Hostel in room 116. The accused is right now in Delhi, and an FIR has been registered.”Sharing the video, an X user wrote, “Breaking: Punjab Police Officials confirm that the nephew of Amit Shah was involved in the LPU (Lovely Professional University) incident which happened in GH3 Hostel in room 116. Officials say that they have sent special teams to Delhi to arrest him.” India Today Fact Check found the video to be a deepfake. In the original video uploaded by CrimeTak, Phagwara SP Major Singh did not say that.OUR PROBEThe viral video featured CrimeTak’s logo. We searched for the video on its YouTube channel and found it was uploaded on September 27. The viral section starts at the nine-second mark and ends at 27. In it, Phagwara SP Major Singh spoke about a BTech Agriculture student who allegedly died by suicide after jumping from the seventh floor of a girls’ hostel on September 10. Singh said, “We handed over the dead body after the postmortem to her parents.”Further, at 24 seconds, Singh spoke about the allegations of rape at Lovely Professional University. He said the police had not received any application (complaint) regarding a rape. He said, “If a rape has happened, an application for this should be filed, right? They are just saying that it happened. We ask them to tell us who the victim was, and if they have a video, they should provide it. It needs to be clarified. We are ready to conduct an investigation. We will get a medical examination done for the victim. After the medical examination is done, we will identify the accused.”In the whole three-minute video, nowhere did Singh claim the alleged perpetrators were Bharatiya Janata Party workers and related to the home minister. We also did not find any credible report about such a claim.The Press Information Bureau fact-checking unit also debunked the viral video, calling it “digitally manipulated and fake”.THE LPU SITUATIONAccording to the news reports from September 28, preliminary investigations at the university campus have not substantiated the rape allegations. However, an FIR had been registered against an unidentified person on charges of rape.An officer told The Indian Express, “The three girls present in the hostel room where the sexual assault is alleged to have occurred denied that any such incident took place.”The university is now identifying students involved in the violence, arson, and vandalism on campus. The university has also suspended classes for 10 days and postponed mid-term examinations.Thus, we concluded that the viral video is a deepfake.- Ends