Mumbai: Maharashtra nodal cyber police have lodged an FIR against unknown social media account holders for allegedly defaming PM Narendra Modi and CM Devendra Fadnavis through creation and circulation of fake, misleading and AI-generated content on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway ‘missing link’, which was partially shut following a monsoon-triggered landslide recently.The case was filed after a BJP functionary’s complaint.The closure of the nearly Rs 7,000-crore project, which sent traffic back to the old Mumbai-Pune highway it was built to bypass barely nine weeks after its inauguration, had drawn much flak. Fadnavis had likened the criticism to insulting Maharashtra and warned that those doing so “will not be spared”. The opposition had slammed him over it.Deepak Mhapadi, a social media manager at BJP’s office at Nariman Point who filed the complaint, said he was routinely monitoring social media platforms when he came across defamatory and objectionable content on the missing link. He alleged the content was intended to mislead the public and tarnish the image of govt and of public infrastructure projects.Naming multiple Instagram accounts, the complaint cited a reel containing abusive remarks against Modi and another link with fake photos of potholes on the expressway. One account allegedly created and circulated an AI-generated fake video showing the expressway, while another created a graphic using a photo of Amruta Fadnavis, the CM’s wife, with an objectionable caption.Police invoked charges of forgery, intentional insult made with the knowledge that such provocation will cause the victim to break public peace or commit another offence, statements conducing to public mischief, spreading fake news and defamation under BNS and IT Act.
