Delhi police arrest Nadeen Ahmed, 24, over AI images of an additional DCP

Delhi police said on Tuesday that viral images of additional DCP Vivek Bhagat molesting a woman journalist were generated by machine, and that they had arrested the man they say made them. He is Nadeen Ahmed, 24, from Haryana. Officers said the file was created on 3 October and posted on 4 October, and that it was linked to a YouTube channel called News Aiyna. They said tools used to make the images were recovered, and that he admitted making the material to show the force in a bad light. "His motive was to spread anarchy," police said.

The images followed a real allegation. An independent journalist said Bhagat sexually harassed her while she was covering a detention at Jantar Mantar on 3 October. Police then checked the pictures circulating online. The Week reported that the force now treats those pictures as fabricated. The allegation at the protest and the pictures on the channel are not the same item. One is a complaint about conduct. The other is a file police say was built afterwards and posted the next day.

The charge that was already withheld

On Monday night the Delhi government said Bhagat's current-duty charge as additional DCP had been withheld, at his own request, until a Crime Branch inquiry into the harassment allegations is finished. The charge carries no extra pay. Tuesday's arrest does not close that inquiry. It adds a second track: a criminal case about fabricated images, against a man who is not the officer and not the journalist. Bhagat remains the subject of the Crime Branch file. Ahmed is the subject of the fabrication file.

Police described the poster as part of a conspiracy to disturb peace. They did not, in the briefing reported so far, name any other accused. A single arrest and a YouTube channel are the public case. News Aiyna is the distribution point they cited. If the channel posted the file on 4 October, the images had a day to travel before the force called them false. That day is the gap in which a picture of an officer can move faster than a forensic check.

What the tools do not prove

Recovering generation tools from a flat in Haryana shows capacity. It does not, by itself, show that every frame in circulation came from that flat. Police say Ahmed admitted the work. An admission is the link they are using. A court will ask for the file history, the upload log and the channel's ownership. Until those are produced, the public account rests on the briefing: created on 3 October, posted on 4 October, channel named, suspect named, motive described as anarchy.

The journalist's complaint is older than the arrest and separate from it. She said the harassment happened at Jantar Mantar on 3 October, the same date police give for the creation of the images. A fabricated picture posted the next day can be used to muddy a real complaint, or it can be the only thing some viewers ever see. The Crime Branch inquiry is the route for the first question. Ahmed's case is the route for the second. Holding back Bhagat's additional charge keeps the administrative file open while both run.

The name on the poster

Bhagat was an assistant commissioner given current-duty charge as additional DCP. The images used that title. The government has now kept him from taking the charge. The man police have arrested is 24, lives in Haryana, and is tied to a channel most readers had not heard of on Monday. The useful distinction for anyone who saw the picture is the one the briefing drew: the force says the frame is synthetic, the complaint at Jantar Mantar is a different inquiry, and the person in custody is Nadeen Ahmed.