Delhi Police Takes Action Against Lawyer Prashant Bhushan Over Fake Video Controversy

Legal Trouble for Prashant Bhushan

New Delhi: The Delhi Police has initiated an FIR against prominent Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan for allegedly disseminating a digitally altered video of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, which reportedly included comments detrimental to India, according to officials.

The FIR was lodged at the Special Cell police station after cyber surveillance on November 3 revealed a social media post from the account @thequotesnews, which claimed that Bhushan had shared the manipulated video via his X account.

Authorities stated that the video contained misleading and provocative content that could incite rumors, harm reputations, and disrupt public peace.

The FIR cites multiple sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including 336 (4) for forgery, 353 (1) (c) for statements leading to public mischief, 356 for defamation, and 340 (2) for using a forged document as if it were genuine, as well as section 66 C of the Information Technology Act concerning identity theft.

This incident follows a fact-check by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), which debunked the digitally altered video falsely linked to the Russian minister.

The misleading clip allegedly depicted him making critical remarks about India's domestic issues and oil procurement.

The police are currently probing the situation and analyzing the video's dissemination across social media platforms.