Babydoll Archi: Assam Police arrest Archita Phukan’s ex-boyfriend for creating fake social media profile and posting her morphed, AI-generated images claiming she is joining US porn industry

Assam police arrested a man in Dibrugarh, Assam, on Saturday (12th July) for creating a fake social media profile and obscene AI-generated images of a woman named Archita Phukan. The incident has highlighted the dangers of misuse of Artificial Intelligence, as major media houses had believed the fake profile to be real, and had exrensively reported on her Babydoll Archi social media profile, which also turned out to be fake.

Recently, Archita Phukan’s morphed images with American adult star Kendra Lust went viral on social media. It was then claimed that Phukan is joining the porn industry in the USA. The development was reported by several mainstream media houses. However, now it has emerged that everything was fake, based of morphed images created one Pratim Bora.

A complaint was filed by Phukan’s brother in connection with the fake profile and images, demanding action against the culprit. Surprisingly, the person responsible for creating the fake profile and images has turned out to be a disgruntled former boyfriend of Phukan, Pratim Bora.

Police arrested Bora from his home town in Tinsukia. He has been hiding from the authorities, but was located after his IP address was tracked. “We tracked the accused using IP address data and technical evidence. He was arrested from a rented apartment in Tinsukia. His phone and laptop have been seized and sent for forensic examination,” a cybercrime officer said.

Bora made a fake social media profile and posted Phukan’s morphed images

Bora was operating the fake profile of Archita Phukan for weeks and has been posting adult content using Phukan’s morphed photos and videos generated with the help of Artificial Intelligence. He admitted to having obtained Phukan’s images from her old social media account and morphed them.

Bora told the police that he uploaded the AI-generated photos and videos to defame and harass Phukan. “During interrogation, the accused said he created the fake account out of anger and emotional frustration following the end of his relationship with the woman,” the officer said. An FIR has been registered against Bora for committing cyber fraud, defamation, identity manipulation, obscenity and invasion of privacy under relevant sections of the BNS and the IT Act.

Phukan’s photos with Lust appeared on the internet in April this year. The photos were posted by a fake social media profile named Babydoll Archi. The profile has been regularly posting Phukan’s morphed images and videos and had gathered a considerable following of over 750 thousand. The fake profile gained attention after a reel showing Phukan with Lust went viral, leaving its followers surprised. The reel garnered millions of views.

A story about Babydoll Archi’s troubled past involving prostitution were also posted from the fake profile. The story mentioned how she “earned” her freedom from prostitution by paying ₹25 lakh.

Soon Phukan’s name appeared in top searches on search engines, and on Monday (7th July), ‘Archita Pukhan video viral Original’ became an active trend on Google Trends. She came to know about the fake profile and pictures through her friends, who came across the morphed videos and images. Subsequently, the authorities were alerted by her brother leading to the nabbing of the culprit.

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