BENGALURU  SUNDAY  JANUARY 21, 2024  `12.00  PAGES 30  LATE CITY EDITION CREATOR OF VIRAL DEEPFAKE VIDEO OF RASHMIKA MANDANNA ARRESTED POSTED VIDEO TO BOOST ACTOR’S FAN PAGE The accused, identified as 23-year-old Eemani Naveen from Guntur in Andhra Pradesh, created the video to increase the number of followers on the Instagram fan page of the actor he created. However, when the video went viral, he panicked and deleted it. The police said the fan following of the page increased from 90,000 to 1,08,000 within two weeks The Delhi Police said it arrested a B-Tech graduate from Andhra Pradesh over the deepfake video that was widely circulated on social media BIG FAN OF ACTOR, CREATED VIDEO USING A.I. ■ ■ Following a complaint by Delhi Commission for Women, the police filed a case. It then sought Meta’s help to identify the accused After Naveen’s account was traced, a Delhi Police team reached Guntur to arrest him. Naveen told the police he is a big fan of the actor and created the video using AI with help from YouTube Oct 9 WHEN THE VIDEO WAS UPLOADED ON THE INSTA FAN PAGE OF RASHMIKA CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOGGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI ED finally grills Soren in Ranchi land scam case M U K E S H R A N J A N @ Ranchi AMID protests by Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) workers, officials of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) began questioning Chief Minister Hemant Soren at his residence here since 1 pm in connection with a land scam. Soren had skipped seven summonses before he agreed to be questioned. According to sources, eight ED officials came in with files and a list of 300 questions for the interrogation. Questions were mostly related to the land scam and sources of his income, they said. Later in the evening, additional files were brought in. The ED is investigating the Ranchi land scam on the basis of documents recovered from key accused Bhanu Pratap Prasad’s house. Several important documents relating to the scam were found in the raid from the house of Sub-Inspec- 4 DAys TO gO PrEsENTs THINKEDU CONCLAVE Sania divorces, Shoaib marries the third time E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Chennai SPECULATIONS on separation between high-profile sports stars Sania MIrza and Shoaib Malik were put to rest when the former Pakistan cricket captain announced his third marriage with popular actor from his country Sana Javed in Karachi on Saturday. He also shared his marriage photographs on social media X. This has put to rest numerous rumours and unconfirmed stories revolving around Sania and Shoaib’s marriage and subsequent separation. The sporting royalties were hardly seen together in public and there were conjectures of rift between the two. Sania and Shoaib got married in 2010 and have a son named Izaan, who is five now and lives with Sania. After marriage the two lived in Dubai. According to reports family sources said it was a ‘khula’, which gives the right to a woman to divorce her husband. tor Prasad of Badagain zone. Certain documents show the CM allegedly grabbing a parcel of tribal land in Ranchi. Amid apprehension that Soren could be arrested, many MLAs of the ruling alliance gathered at the chief minister’s house since morning to show their support. Likewise, hundreds of JMM workers g athered near his house with bow and arrow placards, party flags and banners. They were shouting slogans against the ED and the Centre. They warned that the ED should be prepared to face the consequences if it were to arrest Soren. Soon security was beefed up and prohibitory orders issued within a radius of 500 metres from the CM’s house till 11 pm. On Wednesday, the JMM claimed that there is huge resentment among people against Enforcement Directorate’s politically motivated actions against its leader. Modi may perform final ritual on Monday; Centre warns media houses over fake content Dalit who donated rock to make Ram Lalla to give land for temple K S H I VA KU M A R @ M ys u r u Rocks that were excavated from land belonging to farmer Ramdas (inset) at Gujjegowdanapura near Mysuru | EXPRESS 35,000 FROM K’TAKA TO VISIT AYODHYA Bengaluru: Over 35,000 devotees of Lord Ram from Karnataka will visit Ayodhya from January 31 to March 25. BJP State President B Y Vijayendra said 25 special trains have been arranged from various places in the state to facilitate the visits. The devotees will be given an identity card with a QR code | P6 DELIGHTED over the use of a stone block from his land at Gujjegowdanapura village near Mysuru to carve the idol of Ram Lalla to be consecrated in Ayodhya on January 22, Dalit farmer Ramdas has decided to donate part of his property to construct a Ram temple. Ramdas said people of Gujjegowdanapura are happy that the idol has been carved out of the stone block from their village. “I wanted to clear the rocks on my 2.14 acres of land for cultivation. The rocks excavated suited the requirement of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust and Mysurubased sculptor Arun Yogiraj selected one of them,” he said. “With many from the village expressing their desire to see a Ram temple on my land from where the stone block was taken to Ayodhya, I decided to donate part of it,” Ramdas said. Srinivas, a local quarry contractor, who took up the work to clear the rocks, said it took a few days to remove one of the huge rocks that was split into three blocks. When work was going on, Mannaiah Badigar, Narendra Shilpi and Gopal contacted him for a stone block to carve the Ram Lalla idol. “When I told them that we have three huge blocks of stone measuring 10ft, they visited Ramdas’ land and took one of them to Ayodhya for tests by experts. We were delighted when they told us that the trust has selected the stone block. Soon, orders for four more blocks to carve the idols of Bharatha, Lakshmana and Shatrugna were de- TRUST TO TAKE ACTION OVER LEAKED PICTURE N A M I TA B A J PA I @ Ayodhya THE Shree Ram Teerth Kshetra Trust that oversees the construction of Ram Temple, on Saturday warned that it will take action against those who released the image of the Ram Lalla idol’s face before the consecration. The image of the new idol without its face covered — sculpted by Mysurubased Arun Yogiraj — went viral on social media on Friday . The picture was said to be taken when the idol was in workshop. It was not released DESERTIFICATION LIKELY TO PARTLY DISPLACE PEOPLE IN INDIA BY 2050: STUDY B O S K Y K H A N N A @Bengaluru A study by a Bengaluru-based institute has stated that over 143 million people around the world, most of them in India, could be displaced by desertification by 2050. It also pointed out that effects of soil degradation are particularly severe in the driest places. Around 69% (approximately 227 million hectares) of India’s land, falls under arid, semi-arid or sub-humid weather climates. In many of these dry zones, degradation is touching irreversible limits. The study titled “Soil Restoration and Climate Resilient Agricultural Frameworks to Safeguard India’s Food Security” — conducted by Bengaluru-based Firefly Life Sciences, working on next-generation agricultural technologies that are sustainable, ecological and economical — also quoted the 2019-20 Soil Health Survey in India report and said 55% of the country’s soil is deficient in nitrogen, 42% in phospho- Will fully fence Myanmar border, says Amit Shah P R A S A N TA M A Z U M D A R @ Guwahati UNION Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday said the Centre would fence the over 1,600 km long porous India-Myanmar border even as he exuded confidence that India would be free from the Naxal problem within the next three years. He made the statement on fencing while addressing the passing out parade of 2,551 Assam police commandos here. They were trained by the Ar my and the police. “We have a porous border with Myanmar. The Modi government has decided to fence it. The entire border will be protected through fencing similar to that of the Bangladesh border,” Shah said. He also said the Centre reviewed its Free Movement Regime (FMR) agreement with Myanmar and de- cided to do away with it. India and Myanmar had signed the FMR pact to facilitate the movement of people residing along the international border. It allowed them to travel up to 16 km inside each other’s territories without travel documents. Recently, the Mizoram government expressed opposition to the Centre’s move. Chief Minister Lalduhoma told Modi the Mizos consider the state’s 510 km long border with Myanmar as imposed by the British. The Chins in Myanmar and the Mizos are ethnic cousins, belonging to the Zo community . Shah did not spell out why the decision was taken but it is a fact that the open border allows insurgents, among others, to sneak in and out of India. Also, the Manipur government suspected the involvement of Myanmar-based Kuki militants in the violence in the state. livered in a month,” he said. Meanwhile, local legislator GT Devegowda said villagers will lay the foundation stone for the temple on Ramdas’ land on January 22. Gujjegowdanapura will be spruced up for that special occasion, he added. He said he along with the villagers would approach Yogiraj to carve an idol of Lord Ram for the temple using a stone block excavated there. rus and 44% in organic carbon. The study points to severe impact on agriculture, causing a fall in food production, forcing displacement of populations looking for more conducive regions for sustenance. Ananya Vyas, content and communications strategist at Firefly Life Sciences, said as per the Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas of India, prepared by Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO’s) Space Application Centre (SAC), 96.4 million hectares (3032%) of India’s total geographical area is undergoing desertification or degradation. Recent estimates peg this figure as high as 174.4 milCONTINUED ON: P7 lion hectares. EXPRESS READ Seven arrested for moral policing in Haveri district Haveri: In a moral policing incident, nine people allegedly attacked a man and a woman from different communities at Byadagi in Haveri district on Friday. Seven of them have been arrested. A senior police officer said the victims work in the same office and the accused thought they were in a relationship and attacked them, he said. P7 One nation, one poll: `10K cr may be needed every 15 years New Delhi: The Election Commission would require an estimated Rs 10,000 crore every 15 years to procure new Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) if simultaneous polls are held for Lok Sabha and assemblies, according to the poll body. During simultaneous polls, two sets of EVMs would be needed per polling station — one for the Lok Sabha seat and another for assembly constituency. by any competent authority or the temple trust. Official images were to be released in public domain only after the consecration on January 22. Parallelly, the Centre issued a media advisory cautioning them against publishing any false or manipulated content related to the event that could disturb communal harmony and public order. Meanwhile, PM Modi, the mukhya yajman (main host for the puja) of the consecration, will be joined by 15 other yajP10 mans in the final puja. THUS BEGINS THE AGE OF RAM PLUS 12 PAGES