In an unexpected turn in the case involving fabricated and explicit digital imagery targeting actor Sonakshi Sinha, a Mumbai court has ordered the immediate release of the man apprehended in connection with the incident. Mumbai Police had tracked down and detained the accused from the national capital, but the judicial magistrate rebuked the investigators for bypassing fundamental statutory arrest protocols, thereby turning down their custody remand plea.
Complaint Lodged at Bandra Police Station
The controversy emerged after actor Sonakshi Sinha discovered that sexually explicit deepfake imagery bearing her likeness was being circulated across digital networks. Aggrieved by the illicit dissemination, she approached the Bandra police station in Mumbai and submitted a formal complaint. She alleged that an individual based in Delhi was deliberately creating and circulating these obscene visual manipulations to tarnish her image.
Acting upon the high-profile complaint, cyber investigators initiated an inquiry to track the digital footprint behind the uploads. The technical investigation eventually identified the person responsible as Aryan Deepak Jain, a resident of Delhi.
Apprehension in Shahdara and Move to Mumbai
Equipped with preliminary tracking details, a Mumbai Police team conducted a raid on Saturday morning in Delhi. Officers apprehended Aryan Deepak Jain from within the jurisdiction of Jagatpuri police station in the Shahdara district. Following the apprehension, the team transported him directly from Delhi to Mumbai to produce him before the Bandra magistrate court.
Seeking three days of police custody, the prosecution argued before the court that custodial interrogation was essential to the probe. The investigating team contended that they needed to locate and seize the electronic devices, including phones or computers, allegedly utilized to manufacture the deepfake content and upload it onto social media platforms.
Defense Highlights Failure to Follow Statutory Norms
During the remand proceedings, counsel representing Aryan Deepak Jain vehemently opposed the police request, pointing out blatant procedural violations. The defense argued that the police failed to serve the mandatory statutory notice prior to the arrest and omitted to clearly explain the specific grounds of arrest to the accused.
More crucially, defense counsel emphasized that the police breached transit norms by bringing Jain directly from Delhi to Mumbai without presenting him before a local magistrate in Delhi first. The lawyers argued that the police acted in unwarranted haste merely because the complainant was a prominent celebrity. When given an opportunity to speak, Jain maintained his innocence before the magistrate, asserting that he had committed no wrongdoing and that the accusations leveled against him were completely false.
Magistrate Rejects Custody and Orders Discharge
Upon reviewing the case records and hearing both sides, the magistrate found serious fault with the procedure adopted by the Mumbai Police. The court observed that the mandatory legal requirement of producing an arrestee before the nearest local magistrate in Delhi before transferring him to another state had been skipped without any valid explanation.
The court further observed that the offenses invoked in the case carry a maximum statutory punishment of up to seven years. The magistrate noted that the mere necessity of conducting further investigation cannot justify detaining a person when mandatory statutory procedures governing arrest have been disregarded. Consequently, the Bandra court dismissed the plea for three days of police remand and ordered Aryan Deepak Jain to be released from custody.
