#FactCheck -AI-Manipulated Video Falsely Claims ₹50 Crore Deal Involving Bhupen Bora

Introduction

Who would have predicted that the crime of slavery would haunt our lives through the digital world? In a recent unfolding of events, the cyber wing of Maharashtra has saved 60 Indian nationals from a cyber slavery racket run by armed rebel groups operating in Myanmar and arrested five suspects who acted as recruiting agents, including a foreign national. As per the reports, the racketeers made contact with various individuals, enticing them with offers of high-paying jobs in East Asian countries. The operation unfolds a carefully designed crime network that operates through bordering states, Myanmar, Thailand, and Malaysia, targeting vulnerable individuals through deceptive means and forcing them to commit cyber fraud and financial crimes, operating as an authentic industrial setup. The disturbing set of events makes up only one of many such cyber-slavery incidents that are uncovered and various other rackets that operate in the shadows of cyberspace. Another similar event was reported in March 2025, where the disturbing ordeal of a 52-year-old father from Bihar’s Gopalganj, whose son was lured into working in a scam call centre under the pretence of a data entry job in Thailand.

Counting the Unseen: The Dark Metrics of Cyber Slavery

As per the United Nations report from October 2024, a large number of young individuals are enslaved, acting under the impression they will be employed in high-paying jobs, often on social media platforms, and what follows is an intricate web of cybercriminals operating from illegal scam compounds.  According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), financial losses from scams in Southeast Asia reached between $18 billion (Rs 1.6 lakh crore) and $37 billion (Rs 3.2 lakh crore) in 2023, much of it linked to organised crime in these three countries. Also, acting on a similar premise, the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), a division under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), organised an inter-ministerial committee to address a significant rise in cybercrime in Southeast Asian countries, which includes Cambodia, Myanmar, and Laos. 

The data from the Bureau of Immigration in the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, which included around 29,466 Indians who travelled on visitor visas to Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Cambodia between January 2022 and May 2024, has gone missing.

From Rescue to Reform: How India is Tackling Cyber Slavery 

The recent events that unfolded have agitated the government to undertake vigilant rescue operations for the missing individuals who became victims of this modern-day trafficking and coordinate with foreign ministries in Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia for extradition and repatriation. It is notable that in the year 2015, India along with seven other countries in South Asia, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, came together to address transnational threats that transcend geographical and cultural borders in cooperation with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC). The collaboration brought together a Compendium of Bilateral and Regional Instruments for South Asia providing for International Cooperation in Criminal Matters. Further, in January 2025, UNODC and the European Union launched a €9 million regional project titled "Preventing and Addressing Trafficking in Human Beings and the Smuggling of Migrants in South Asia." The Government of India, through its various agencies, also lays down various guidelines and advisories on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal. Additionally, law enforcement agencies are actively involved, and cybersecurity NGOs are proactively spreading awareness about identifying red flags associated with threats such as cyber slavery.

Recommendations: A Call to Action

• The various advisories released by the Gov. of India emphasise the need for Indian nationals to verify the credentials of the employer through the Indian Embassy located in that country.
• The authorities and various agencies also stress the need for individuals to refrain from sharing personal information such as location details, contact information or any information pertaining to personal relationships that can be exploited by such criminals.
• The fundamental manner of tackling the crime of cyber slavery is to ensure digital literacy and increase awareness through public campaigns and educational programmes
• The need of the hour is international cooperation and collaboration to undertake a concerted effort to bring back the victims and penalise all those who facilitate such criminal activities. 

References

• https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/more-than-60-indians-forced-into-cyber-slavery-rescued-from-myanmar-5-arrested/article69438991.ece 
• https://www.indiatoday.in/india-today-insight/story/cyber-slavery-the-new-job-con-trapping-indian-youth-abroad-2637157-2024-11-21 
• https://indianexpress.com/article/india/mha-high-powered-committee-cybercrimes-from-se-asia-9345843/ ‍
• https://www.unodc.org/documents/terrorism/Publications/SAARC%20compendium/SA_Compendium_Volume-2.pdf

Procedural History: 

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The case started with a 2011 Madras High Court ruling that included the appellant’s personal information. In the case discussed, the court decided in 2024, the appellant went to the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court to request that his name and other identifying information from that previous ruling be redacted. He argued that his right to privacy under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution was violated by the ongoing release of such private information into the public arena. He claimed that the revelation had hurt him in real ways, such as having his application for an Australian visa denied. Therefore, without compromising the ideals of open justice, the current procedures aimed to have the court recognize a person’s “Right to be Forgotten” within a broader framework of privacy and data protection.

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Background and Factual Matrix

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The appellant was charged under Sections 417 and 376 of the IPC. The trial court convicted him in 201, but later, the High Court in 2014 fully, completely and unconditionally acquitted him, which was not based on the benefit of doubt. Following the acquittal, he remarried and has three children. The judgment of both the High Court and the Trial Court has personal and intimate details about him. Being available in the public domain has caused him significant repercussions, as he was denied a visa to travel to Australia by authorities, citing the criminal cases. The appellant has filed a plea seeking a mandamus directing the Registrar General, Additional Registrar General, and Registrar (IT-Statistics) as R1, R2, R3 to redact his name and other identities from the acquittal judgment. He has sought a direction from Ikanoon Software Development Private Limited (R4) to reflect the redaction in its publication. 

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Issue 

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1. Whether a writ of mandamus can lie against a High Court for redaction of personal details from its own judgment, or does such a prayer tantamount to a High Court issuing a writ against itself?
2. Whether the High Court, being a Court of Record under Article 215 of the Indian Constitution, is entitled to preserve its record for perpetuity in its original form without any modification or redaction?
3. Whether the ‘Right to be Forgotten' can be recognised and enforced in the absence of a specific statutory provision or Supreme Court direction, given that it constitutes an exception to the fundamental principle of open courts and open justice?

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Adjudication and Reasoning

The division bench has allowed the Writ appeal and granted the following relief:

1. R4 directed to take down the judgment in Crl.A. (MD) No.321 of 2011 dated 30.04.2014 forthwith.
2. R1 to R3 directed to redact the name and other details of the Writ Petitioner relating to his identity from the judgment dated 30.04.2014 in Crl.A.(MD) No. 321 of 2011 and ensure that only the redacted judgment is available for publication or for uploading.

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Rule 

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1. Courts have a wide discretion in deciding whether to allow redaction or not. Such discretion can either be granted at the request of the party seeking redaction or, in appropriate cases, even suo moto by the court.
2. The accused who have earned full, complete and unconditional acquittal without any benefit of doubt have a legitimate claim to move forward for redaction of personal information.
3. The open Court doesn’t require absolute disclosure of all personal information, and the courts, while deciding the concern of privacy and the right to ensure that in litigations to leave behind parts of their past which are no longer relevant, have to balance the concept of open Court on the one hand and privacy concerns of a citizen on the other.
4. As the High Court is the repository of a wide range of information and is entitled to preserve the original record in perpetuity. However, without diluting the sanctity of the original record, the public reflection of that record can be moderated to preserve the privacy of the person to whom that record pertains.

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Reasoning 

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1. Drawing on the judgment K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India, the court found Article 21 to protect not only informational privacy but also the "right to be forgotten," which gives individuals the right to request the deletion of any personal data when there is no longer any legitimate public interest in retaining such information. Such irreparable reputational damage is thus an infringement on constitutional privacy that demands judicial redaction. 
2. The court rejected the argument that a writ against its own order is impermissible, drawing a distinction between challenging the legal correctness of a judgment and seeking redaction of personal information. Allowing redaction will not question the validity of the judgment; rather, it will simply change its public appearance to ensure privacy.
3. Since a High Court is a Court of Record with an obligation to preserve its judgments in their unaltered form forever, the court held here that such internal maintenance of complete records was not incompatible with the issuance of a redacted public version. Institutional integrity is maintained when the original kept in the archives is supplemented with a public version that masks the privacy areas.
4. Open justice principles work to establish transparency, accountability, and public confidence, but these are not absolute. The court took a proportionality stance: personal identifiers, where they neither educate nor have precedential value and continue to inflict harm, may be expunged without affecting the established legal principles of judgment.
5. Although the DPDP Act exempts courts from several statutory obligations, the court held that it can, by virtue of its inherent discretion, protect personal data, and in so doing, exercise that power without the need for any legislative command. Traditionally the Madras High Court rules provide for the possibility of restriction of certified copies, thus establishing redaction as feasible both legally and administratively.

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Executive Summary
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As tensions between the United States and Iran continue to escalate in West Asia, a video showing a massive fire engulfing an industrial facility is being widely circulated on social media. Several users claim that the footage shows the aftermath of a recent U.S. strike on Iran. CyberPeace Research Wing’s research found the claim to be false. Our research revealed that the viral video is not related to the current U.S.-Iran conflict. It actually shows a 2022 attack on Saudi Arabia's Aramco petroleum distribution facility in Jeddah, carried out by Yemen's Houthi rebels.

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Claim

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An X user shared the viral video on July 16, 2026, claiming that it shows a recent American attack on Iran. https://x.com/SonOfBharat7/status/2077823734069826027 , https://perma.cc/RPA9-YZ3C 

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Fact Check

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To verify the claim, we extracted keyframes from the viral video and conducted a reverse image search using Google Lens. During the research, we found that the same video had been uploaded by Reuters on March 26, 2022. According to Reuters, Yemen's Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for attacks on Saudi Arabia's energy facilities. Reuters reported that the Saudi-led coalition confirmed an attack on Saudi Aramco's petroleum products distribution station in Jeddah, where two storage tanks caught fire. The incident caused significant damage but no casualties were reported. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CAxj5tgZ_w
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For further verification, we found another video of the same incident uploaded by the Qatar Day Facebook page on March 25, 2022, showing the fire from a different angle. According to the post, a massive blaze broke out at an oil depot in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, after Yemen's Houthi rebels launched multiple drone and missile attacks targeting Saudi infrastructure. Thick black smoke could be seen rising over the city.

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Additionally, The Sun also uploaded the same footage on March 26, 2022, identifying it as the attack on Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFj5nDL0y7o

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Conclusion

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Our research found that the viral video does not show a recent U.S. attack on Iran.Although the United States and Iran have recently exchanged military strikes and attacks on civilian infrastructure have been reported, the viral footage predates the current conflict by several years. It actually shows the March 2022 Houthi attack on Saudi Aramco's petroleum distribution facility in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Therefore, the claim linking the video to the ongoing U.S.-Iran conflict is false and misleading.

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