BHADOHI: A cyber cafe operator and his brother in Uttar Pradesh’s Bhadohi have been booked for allegedly blackmailing a 25-year-old woman by creating AI-generated obscene images of her, police said on Saturday.The accused has been identified as Talib, who runs a cyber cafe in Ghosiya, and his brother Rafiq allegedly extorted Rs 50,000 from the woman by threatening to upload the morphed photos online. Investigators said Talib had first connected with the woman through Instagram, where the two had conversations. Using photos uploaded on her social media account, he allegedly created obscene images with the help of artificial intelligence and sent them to her, demanding money to keep them private. Fearing that the pictures would be circulated online, the woman reportedly paid Rs 50,000 to the accused in Gyanpur. The accused later contacted the woman again in April and allegedly sent the morphed images to her husband’s phone after tracing her in-laws’ address. He allegedly threatened to leak old chats and the fake photos publicly to damage her marriage if more money was not paid. The woman had got married in Varanasi on February 8, 2025. Following a complaint submitted by the woman’s father to Superintendent of Police Abhinav Tyagi on May 13, police conducted a raid at the accused’s house on Friday. However, both accused were absconding. A case has been registered against the duo under Section 308(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita related to extortion, along with provisions of the IT Act. Police said preliminary findings suggest the brothers may have targeted several other women using the same method and allegedly collected lakhs of rupees through blackmail. Efforts are underway to arrest them.
