Manipulated videos of police, minister commenting on Indian protests mislead online
- Published on August 3, 2026 at 10:51
- 4 min read
- By Sachin BAGHEL, AFP India
Protests by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) over leaked exam papers in India have ended, but this has not stopped misinformation about the rallies from spreading online. The latest involves two doctored videos that appear to show a senior police officer saying he would quit and a minister calling for tough measures against the protesters. A comparison with the original footage shows the audio was altered, while detection tools have flagged it as AI-manipulated.
"Delhi DCP resigns over action taken against students," reads a Hindi-language Facebook post shared on July 28, 2026.
The attached 47-second video appears to show Sumit Jha, a deputy commissioner of police (DCP) in New Delhi, saying: "I am resigning from the Indian Police Service with immediate effect. I was asked to falsely portray students protesting for their rights as criminals, which goes against my conscience. These students are not terrorists -- they are the future of our country.
"I joined the police to uphold the truth, not spread lies. From today, I stand with the students, not the government."
Text overlaid on the video largely repeats the false claim.
Another Instagram video was posted on July 25 with a Hindi-language caption attributed to Union Minister Piyush Goyal: "We should publicly hang two or three 'cockroaches' so that the CJP gets an idea of our strength and the extent to which we can go."
Text overlaid on video reads, "Controversy over Union Minister Piyush Goyal's alleged statement sparks debate in political circles. We should publicly hang two or three cockroaches."
Similar claims also spread on Facebook, Instagram, and X posts after weeks of protest by the CJP demanding the resignation of India's education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan (archived link).
At least 100 people have been arrested across the country, according to the CJP, which is demanding that the government not backtrack after authorities had assured protesters that no punitive action would be taken against them (archived link).
Meanwhile, India's upper house of parliament passed a bill that would increase penalties for leaking exam papers -- a win for the CJP, whose weeks of protest had already forced the education minister's resignation (archived here and here).
But neither of the clips is genuine.
A Google reverse image search using keyframes from the first video led to the same footage posted by Delhi Police on X on July 23 (archived link).
In the 54-second video, the officer -- New Delhi's DCP Sumit Jha -- appeals to student protesters to be wary of a misinformation campaign by Pakistan-based social media accounts targeting the protest.
He does not mention resigning or supporting the students instead of the government.
Delhi Police also debunked the claim, calling it "completely fake", while Buffalo University's AI detection tool Deepfake-O-Meter has flagged it as "likely AI-generated" (archived link).
A Google reverse image search using keyframes from the second video led to a clip showing the same visuals posted on X by Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency on July 23 (archived link).
In the original video, Union Minister Piyush Goyal is commenting on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's X post, where he announced fast-tracked courts "to ensure swift and stringent punishment for those involved in paper leaks" (archived link).
He says Modi has ordered the strictest action against those responsible, including setting up fast-track courts to ensure swift punishment. He also urges the opposition not to politicise the issue and calls for resolving it through discussion while maintaining peace.
At no point does he threaten student protesters or say they should be punished.
India's ANI agency and public broadcaster DD News also published clips of the interview filmed from different angles (archived here and here).
An analysis of the falsely shared video's audio using the Hiya voice cloning detection tool, available in The Verification Plugin, found it was also "very likely AI-generated".
The minister has also denied making the remarks in a post on his X account, clarifying that: "My remarks to the media outside Parliament have been maliciously doctored using AI to create and circulate a deepfake video in an attempt to spread misinformation" (archived link).
AFP has fact-checked other misinformation about the CJP-led protests.
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