AI image falsely shared as 'arrested Muslim militant' during India mega-festival

"'Ayub Khan' a militant was arrested in Kumbh Mela in Uttar Pradesh. He had come as a sadhu (Hindu monk) and mingled with our sadhus," read a Facebook post on January 22, 2025. 

"He had conspired to commit the greatest crime that his cult teaches. By God's grace, our sadhus noticed the actions of this terrorist and handed him over to the police," added the post, which has been shared more than 2,300 times.

It included an image appearing to show two police officials standing in knee-deep water flanking a man dressed in Hindu saffron robes, whose hands had been tied up.

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Screenshot of the false Facebook post, captured on January 22, 2025

Some 400 million pilgrims were expected to attend the six-week long Kumbh Mela, a vast Hindu festival held on the river banks of Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh (archived link).

Organisers say the scale of preparations for the millennia-old show of religious piety and ritual bathing is akin to setting up a country from scratch.

At least 15 people were killed in a stampede on January 29, a doctor told AFP, despite organisers installing hundreds of cameras and using drones to track crowds.

Other posts on Facebook and X also shared the image alongside similar false claims, drawing comments that include attacks against India's Muslim minority population.

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AFP reached out to local police in Uttar Pradesh who dismissed the circulating posts.

No Muslim man named Ayub Khan disguised as a monk and was arrested at the Kumbh Mela, Bhaskar Mishra, officer in-charge of the Akhara Police Station which handles security at the festival, told AFP on January 28, 2025.

He added a man called Ayub Ali was taken into custody but was later released.

"After all the necessary investigation, Ayub was released by the Magistrate and no case has been registered related to the incident," Mishra said.

Local media ETV Bharat reported on January 14 that Ayub entered the campsite of a Hindu monk by faking Hindu identity (archived link).

Ayub's picture in the ETV Bharat report bore no resemblance to the image shared in the false posts.

Divyendra Singh Jadaun from the Indian tech learning firm The Indian Deepfaker told AFP he analysed the image and found visual errors that suggest it was AI-generated.

"People in the background have no face. Also, the man in saffron robes can be seen tied with ropes that look too clean and fake," Jadaun said on January 23.

The water shows minimal ripples around the people which is not realistic, he added.

AFP separately analysed the image and found the hands of the monk and the police officer on the left have unnatural shapes.

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Screenshot highlighting the people with no faces, unnatural hands and minimal water ripples

While there is no foolproof method to spot AI-generated media, identifying visual inconsistencies can help, as errors still occur despite the meteoric progress in generative AI.

AFP had previously debunked misinformation around the Kumbh Mela.

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