Police notice to Telangana IAS officer for posting AI-generated image about tree-cutting

Hyderabad, April 16 (IANS) The Telangana Police have issued a notice to senior IAS officer Smita Sabharwal for reposting an AI-generated Ghibli image on social media regarding the bulldozing of the 400-acre land near Hyderabad Central University.

Cyberabad Police have served notice under section 179 of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) to Smita Sabharwal, principal secretary of Youth Advancement, Tourism and Culture.

The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer on March 31 had reposted a tweet from the ‘Hi Hyderabad’ handle with an image depicting bulldozers in front of the Mushroom Rock on Kancha Gachibowli land, with a peacock and two deer looking on in Ghibli style.

The 2001-batch IAS officer had re-posted the content amid the protests by HCU students, environment activists and opposition parties over alleged destruction of the forest on the Kancha Gachibowli land.

The bureaucrat on Wednesday also re-posted a tweet criticising the action of the Telangana government.

Meanwhile, Minister for Industries and Information Technology D. Sridhar Babu has said that the government would proceed as per law on the matter relating to Smita Sabharwal’s post.

The minister said that fake videos and photos were affecting all the institutions.

Smitha Sabharwal, as the secretary to the Chief Minister, was a powerful officer under the previous BRS government. After the Congress party came to power, she was transferred out of the Chief Minister’s Office and posted as a member secretary of the Telangana State Finance Commission. She was later transferred to the Department of Youth Advancement, Tourism and Culture.

The police action against the lady IAS officer came close on the heels of the multiple cases registered by the Gachibowli Police in connection with the circulation of AI-generated visuals.

The police have registered four FIRs against BRS social media in-charges Krishank Manne and Konatham Dileep and questioned them twice.

The Telangana government has taken serious note of fabricated videos and photos on Kancha Gachibowli lands. It has moved the court with a request to order a probe into fake content using AI.

The government has voiced serious concern over the creation of controversy through the fabricated videos and photos on social media networks that the government seized the lands of Hyderabad Central University.

According to the government, some vested interests made fake videos and AI photos of crying peacocks and injured deer running away after they were hit by bulldozers. Even some famous persons in various fields presumed the fake videos and photos were true and circulated them on social media.

A meeting presided over by the Chief Minister Revanth Reddy recently noted that Union Minister Kishan Reddy, former Minister Jagadish Reddy, social media influencer Dhruv Rathi, film celebrities John Abraham, Dia Mirza, and Raveena Tandon sent wrong message to society after they uploaded the fake videos and photos on social media believing them to be true.

--IANS

ms/uk