In court, I felt it was me on trial: DPS student, victim of nude deepfakes

This story began on May 24 last year, when I received frantic calls from my friends telling me that nude images of me and one other classmate were circulating online. Two of my classmates, for reasons best known to them, had taken images from my Instagram handle and created topless versions using artificial intelligence with help from a pre-university 18-year-old boy.

While my classmate, whose nudes were posted along with mine, chose not to take any action for fear of repercussions, I immediately told my mother, who wasted no time in filing a complaint with Bengaluru’s Cyber Crime Cell. My mother told me that if I kept quiet like my classmate, the boys would never realize they had committed a crime and would continue doing this to other girls.

A couple of days later, the two boys ― both 15-year-olds ― were expelled from school and sent by the cops to a juvenile home. The 18-year-old, who helped them create the deepfakes, was sent to a regular adult prison.

Just about a month later, my friends saw the two 15-year-old boys playing cricket in their locality. I presumed they must have been released. But no one ever informed my parents or me that they had been let off. Nonetheless, I read in the news in June that the 18-year-old, a not-so-well-to-do boy from the outskirts of the city, was still locked up in jail.

I really felt bad for him, and told my parents that whenever I am called in court to testify, I will tell the judge that I forgive him and to set him free. That day came on Jan 30, a little over eight months after we had filed a complaint with the police.

It was a school day, and we were told to be outside this “child-friendly” courtroom, 12 kilometers from our Bengaluru apartment, at sharp 10 am. We reached dot on time. The public prosecutor ― one Krishna Veni ― assigned to my case was the rudest person I had ever met in my life.

Not once did Krishna Veni talk to me or my mother in a polite tone, yet kept telling my mother to keep her voice down. The first thing Krishna Veni told us, without even meeting our eyes, after looking at the case file was, “It’s too big of a document (to study), come another day.”

Naturally, my mother told her that she should have studied the case since she knew the court date was today. Krishna Veni, looking at my mother and me with disgust, now got irritated and her tone got louder. All this while, I was silent, and just soaking in how our judicial system works.

After a few minutes, she told us to sit outside the courtroom till our turn arrives and she will join us shortly. We sat out for three hours, waiting for our case number to be called, and when it was called out, we were told to wait some more time as another case was in progress. And then, it was lunch time for the court.

Finally, we were called in again at 4.30 pm. I stood there next to my mom in front of the judge. The day before, I had practiced through with what I had to say. I was all ready to tell the judge that I forgive the accused. But while the public prosecutor spoke to the judge in a language we didn’t understand, I was losing hope that they will hear me out. And guess what, they didn’t. Not a single question was asked of me.

The judge said that the next date of hearing will be March 3. And I walked out of there, disgusted that I had wasted my entire day for this. The 18-year-old accused or his lawyer wasn’t even present in court.

As I was reaching home, my parents explained to me that this could well be the public prosecutor’s ploy to let the case carry on month after month. She doesn’t care about the fact that I have school. It doesn’t matter to her that my exams are starting soon.

“Child-friendly court?” Really?

(As told to Education Post News)