New Delhi: A sordid mix of fraudulent spirituality with malicious use of artificial intelligence was revealed Wednesday with the arrest of a 27-year-old man in northeast Delhi on charges related to stalking a woman and posting morphed obscene images of her on social media.
As the long arm of the law, the Ahmedabad Police in this case, caught up with self-described yoga guru Sumit Nemchand Sharma, they found he had morphed out more than a hundred obscene images of the complainant, a 21-year-old woman. The unholiest twist in the tale was that the perpetrator of this horror is the very person that the complainant had reached out to for help.
The woman first approached the police two months ago, but her ordeal had begun way back in December last year, when she came across multiple fake social media accounts using AI-morphed obscene images of her. Terrified, she had turned to an Instagram friend, accused Sumit Bhardwaj, for help and support.
This friend ticked all the right boxes. Sumit, who claims to be a “storyteller” on the “path to devotion”, also runs a YouTube account where he regularly uploads videos on yoga besides religious sermons. He has also uploaded these videos—165 in all, and mostly on yoga poses—on other social media platforms, including Instagram.
“My name is Sumit Bhardwaj and I want to teach people to keep good body naturally and take it forward through brahmacharya So that people can go ahead on the path of devotion with honesty and can live their life and can know the ultimate purpose of life, Hare Krishna (sic),” his bio on YouTube reads.
Sumit’s religious posts spawned regular interaction with his followers—369 on Instagram and 419 subscribers on YouTube. Unfortunately, for the Ahmedabad woman, she was one of them.
Sumit was helpful, even patronising, telling the 21-year-old to keep quiet and claiming he was trying to block the guilty accounts to help her. The investigation by Ahmedabad’s Cyber Crime Branch has now revealed that her “helpful” friend was indeed the very stalker she was victimised by, and all because she refused his offer of friendship.
The probe
The police received the complaint two months ago, when the 21-year-old told them that a man had been stalking her on the internet from December 2025 to April 6, creating three fake Instagram accounts in the complainant’s name. The complainant’s photograph was used as the profile picture on these fake accounts. Adding to the mix was a channel on YouTube in her name, where these images were also used.
The woman claimed she was “mentally harassed and defamed in the society, since her nude photographs and videos morphed with AI, with obscene texts written over it, are being shared online (sic),” a senior police officer from Ahmedabad Crime Branch’s Cyber Crime unit told ThePrint.
A case was registered at Cyber Crime Police Station under Sections 78(2), 356(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and relevant sections of the Information Technology Act. Teams were formed to arrest the person involved in the crime.
Cyber Crime officers then began looking into the details of these fake IDs. Information was gathered from social media accounts like X, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube– specifically what phone numbers and email addresses were used to create these accounts.
All this took time, but the Ahmedabad Police zeroed in on pockets of northeast Delhi, finally arresting Sumit Nemchand Sharma, a resident of the Usmanpur area.
They said the woman is associated with Iskcon’s Hare Krishna sect, and the accused contacted her through Instagram, where they discussed topics pertaining to religion. The two met around two-three years ago, and they kept texting on and off. “After talking to her for years, he then attempted to befriend her. Which she refused, he began stalking her on social media, creating fake Instagram IDs in her name. He used her profile photos, and also created a channel on YouTube, all in her name,” sources said.
To facilitate the crime, Sharma downloaded photographs of the woman and her mother from social media platforms. He then used AI to morph these into nude pictures, and uploaded them on to the fake IDs he had created, with accompanying obscene texts.
“She repeatedly saw these nude photos and profiles, so she confided in Sumit. Sumit would then tell her to not speak with anybody, and that she should deliver religious sermons as well. He told her that he would ensure he reports these accounts, so nobody troubles her. He was just manipulating her, and trying to gain her sympathy,” said an officer probing the matter.
The investigation has revealed that up to 10 fake social media accounts were created in the name of the complainant on social media platforms like X, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube from Sharma’s mobile phone. He had created more than 100 AI-morphed photos of the complainant using various websites, the probe found out.
(Edited by Nardeep Singh Dahiya)