On one hand, artificial intelligence (AI)–generated deepfake videos are being used to distort reality, scam individuals, and for harassment and fearmongering through manipulated visuals. On the other hand, the AI tools are helping reconstruct incidents – piece by piece – like in the case of the Porsche crash, while also enabling smarter, more efficient traffic enforcement. In the evolving landscape of modern policing, AI has become both a formidable challenge and a powerful ally.Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad Cyber investigators have come across dozens of examples in which deepfake videos of industry leaders, politicians and stock market experts are being used to manipulate unsuspecting individuals into investing in particular fraudulent platforms.In cases reported in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad, deepfake videos of Infosys founder Narayana Murthy and Infosys Foundation’s Sudha Murthy, Mukesh Ambani of Reliance and late Ratan Tata, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and share trading experts like Rachana Ranade have been used.These videos falsely promoted fraudulent stock trading tools, and were used by cybercriminals to swindle common citizens looking to earn profits out of the stock market. After falling prey to these videos cybercriminals posing as executives from a brokerage firm, use pressure tactics to coerce victims into repeatedly transferring money to mule accounts.Investigators have advised practicing Cyber hygiene etiquettes that can be useful in prevention such scams and need to be applied rigorously before every online transaction. Officials said that one can identify deepfake by checking audio visual mismatch, inconsistencies in facial expressions, background and issues with lip sync etc. One of the best ways is to only trust the posts on the verified and official handles. Officials have said that deepfake videos can also be used for impersonation in phishing attacks, identity theft, blackmail and extortion, spreading misinformation, communal, social or political propaganda.Morphed images for abuse, online threatsIn September last year, a 20-year-old woman was targeted on social media with her fake Instagram profile and her morphed photos created using Artificial Intelligence tools followed by a threat message. The Pimpri Chinchwad police arrested 25-year-old who works in the same firm as that of the victim.Morphed images are often used to harass individuals by placing their faces onto explicit or compromising content, spreading them online to shame, intimidate, or damage reputations. Such images can also be circulated within peer groups or on social media to enable bullying, coercion, or extortion. Prevention includes limiting the sharing of personal photos online, using strong privacy settings, and being cautious about granting apps access to images. If targeted, victims should preserve evidence, report the content to the platform, and file a complaint with cybercrime authorities such as the Indian Cyber Crime Portal or local police.Story continues below this adMahaCrimeOS AIMahaCrimeOS AI is an artificial intelligence‑powered investigation platform launched in December last year by Microsoft in collaboration with the Government of Maharashtra to help police fight cybercrime. The platform has been developed by cybersecurity firm CyberEye in partnership with Maharashtra’s Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) called MARVEL (Maharashtra Advanced Research and Vigilance for Enhanced Law Enforcement) and the Microsoft India Development Center, using Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI Service and Foundry technologies.The tool works by accepting complaints and evidence in various formats like PDFs, audio, handwritten notes, images — extracting key information with AI, automatically organising it, suggesting investigation steps, linking related cases, and generating draft legal notices — all in multiple languages including Marathi. By automating repetitive tasks and providing intelligent assistance, MahaCrimeOS AI speeds up investigations, helps standardise workflows across police stations, and allows officers to focus more on solving cases and assisting victims, significantly improving investigation turnaround times. The tool is being made available to more than 1100 police stations across Maharashtra.Porsche crash: Forensic reconstruction using AIPune city police who investigated the May 2024 accident in which the two young software engineers were killed after a speeding Porsche car, driven by an allegedly inebriated 17-and-a-half-year-old minor, rammed into their motorcycle, have used a simulated model recreating the accident scenario using AI and have used it as technical evidence in the court for the trial.A simulated model of the entire accident scenario has been prepared. Police with inputs including the footage from the CCTV cameras along the route, various photographs of the crime scene, some video clips from the crime scene and other data pertaining to the accident. This reconstruction included the sequence of events leading up to the incident.Story continues below this adAI-based technologies facilitate pattern recognition, analysis of visuals, increasing the accuracy of the crime scene reconstruction and help prepare a simulated model of the crime. As per the procedure, a panchnama of this model has been prepared and submitted along with the technical evidence.Traffic management and enforcementLast year in August, the Pune City Police launched a pilot project featuring an Artificial Intelligence-based, vehicle-mounted traffic enforcement system. The performance of this pilot was closely evaluated, and based on its effectiveness, multiple patrol vehicles equipped with AI-powered cameras are planned to be deployed across the city to automatically detect and issue challans for traffic violations.In February earlier this year, the Pune City Traffic Police launched an online traffic management system in collaboration with Google. The app uses Google Maps to identify real-time traffic congestion, traffic snarls, and other traffic related issues in the city and provides real-time updates to the police.A High Power Committee of the Maharashtra State Government has approved an AI enabled CCTV surveillance project for the entire jurisdiction of Pimpri-Chinchwad police commissionerate. The project will focus on surveillance in industrial and IT clusters and key pilgrimage centres among sensitive locations and will aid in real-time crime detection, investigation, traffic enforcement, crowd monitoring, and emergency response.