MCG sacks 4 staff over AI image fraud, GPS spoofing & misconduct - The Times of India
The Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon terminated an assistant sanitation inspector for using AI tools to manipulate site photos to falsely claim that public complaints were resolved
- Incident date
- Jul 2024
- Target
- Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon
In July 2024, the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG) terminated an assistant sanitation inspector for using artificial intelligence to fabricate evidence of completed work. This incident highlights the growing challenge of synthetic media being used to bypass official government oversight and grievance redressal processes.
What happened
An assistant sanitation inspector named Waseem, engaged through the Haryana Kaushal Rozgar Nigam Limited, was found to be using AI tools to edit field photographs. The inspector uploaded these manipulated images to the municipal grievance portal to falsely claim that illegal garbage dumping sites had been cleaned. In reality, the waste remained at the locations.
When officials investigated, they discovered that the images had been altered to depict the sites as clean. MCG additional commissioner Yash Jaluka confirmed that the corporation used an AI detection mechanism to identify indicators, including a SynthID watermark, which proved the images were synthetic. During a departmental inquiry, the inspector admitted to the editing, but the civic body deemed his explanation unsatisfactory. The act was officially categorized as grave misconduct, fraud, and falsification of records.
In addition to this case, the MCG took action against three other employees for separate instances of misconduct. An assistant sanitation inspector named Sonu was dismissed for utilizing a GPS-spoofing application to falsify his attendance records while absent from his duty location. Furthermore, two computer operators, Neeraj Vashishth and Ankur Arora, were terminated for raising unnecessary objections in property tax and ID cases, which delayed applications and deviated from standard operating procedures.
Following these events, the MCG has begun scrutinizing how photographic evidence is verified across its portals. Officials emphasized the urgent need for robust authentication safeguards, such as mandatory geo-tagging, timestamping, and enhanced AI-detection tools, to ensure the integrity of civic services and prevent further manipulation of official records.