BAHAWALNAGAR: A man, along with his father and brother-in-law, were booked on Monday for allegedly blackmailing a university student by creating fake inappropriate pictures of the girl through artificial intelligence (AI) and uploading these images on social media, on rejection of marriage proposal.

The first information report registered with the B Division police stated that a married man of Faisal Colony started harassing his cousin, a student of BS Computer Science, when she rejected his marriage proposal. The man later created inappropriate fake pictures of the girl through AI tools and started blackmailing her and her family.

He also uploaded these pictures on social media by tagging the relatives of the girl to defame her, it added. Later, on the night of Sept 22, the man barged into the house, held the family hostage at gunpoint, stayed there the whole night, and promised to stop blackmailing them if the family paid Rs2 million as ransom. During this, the man stole the laptop of the girl and left her house the next day.

The man, his father and brother-in-law received Rs280,000 in their accounts as ransom amount by the family through online transactions, the FIR alleged.

It went on to say that the data of the girl and the extorted amount should be recovered from the blackmailers and strict legal action should be taken against them.

On the written complaint of the victim on Sept 29, police booked five men, including two unidentified, under sections 292, 365 B, 380, 389, 506B, 365/B, 506/B and 511 of the Pakistan Penal Code and started investigation.

On Monday, a press release issued by the DPO Office claimed to have arrested the main suspect.

Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2024