Dehradun: A case was registered at Dehradun's Nehru Colony police station on Tuesday after former state chief minister Harish Rawat filed a complaint against state-run Bharatiya Janata Party's official social media account for uploading an AI-generated video depicting him in an “obnoxious manner”.“In this AI-generated video of the applicant, an attempt has been made to portray me in an unpleasant manner and portray me as anti-national. The applicant has been deeply hurt by this act. The applicant has nothing to do with this video clip and is deeply distressed by this vile video that incites religious sentiments,” Rawat said in his signed application. He said the video was uploaded on December 18 on an official page “run by the BJP Uttarakhand President and other associate members with the purpose of endangering the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India”.“In one of the videos, I am shown as a spy and am shot in the name of Rahul Gandhi. If they have the courage, they can come and shoot me, but I will continue to fight against the Bharatiya Janata Party and its policies. I don't understand why they are portraying me as anti-national. This is an effort by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party to tarnish my image,” Rawat said.Rawat went to the police station along with Congress leaders and filed a complaint. He claimed that the FIR was registered four hours later. “The Supreme Court has said that an FIR is a right of a common man, but as a former chief minister, I had to wait four hours for a complaint to be registered. You can imagine that even a common man would be given that treatment,” Rawat said. He added that he will meet Dehradun district magistrate and Uttarakhand election chief on Wednesday to seek strict action.Meanwhile, Bharatiya Janata Party's state media chief Manveer Singh Chouhan said the Rawat-related videos were neither made by the party nor aimed at tarnishing anyone's image. He further added, “If any case is registered by the former CM, it will be investigated. The party also wants to investigate such videos and due legal procedures will be followed.” Circle officer (Dharanwala) Anuj Arya said the FIR was filed under sections 66D (cheating by impersonation using computer resources) and 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of the IT Act and Section 196 of the BNS. It said it has been registered against an unidentified social media user under Article 299 (promotion of enmity, hatred and ill will between different groups), 299 (deliberate and malicious acts intended to provoke religious sentiments) and 353. (Remarks that lead to public mischief).
