Saddamhusen Makarani AI image incident — Oct 2026

An Indian citizen named Saddamhusen Makarani was targeted by a disinformation campaign that utilized generative AI to falsely portray him as a Pakistani man holding a Pakistani flag. The manipulated image was circulated on social media to suggest he was fighting for Indian democracy while holding foreign national symbols, an effort intended to defame him.

What happened

The incident involved the digital alteration of a photograph originally taken in August 2021. In the authentic version of the image, Makarani is seen holding a smartphone rather than a flag. Malicious actors used generative AI tools to edit the image, inserting a Pakistani flag into his hand to support a false narrative regarding his nationality.

Investigations by The Quint confirmed the manipulation through multiple technical verification methods. An analysis using Hive Moderation indicated a 99.9 percent likelihood that the image was AI-generated, while the Sightengine detector also flagged the content as highly likely to be synthetic. Furthermore, the SynthID Detector identified a watermark confirming the image was generated or edited using OpenAI tools.

Makarani, who is originally from Gujarat and currently resides in the UK, publicly refuted the claims by sharing his Indian passport and the original 2021 photograph. He specifically identified a post from the official Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) account of Delhi as the source of the false claim. The incident highlights the growing use of AI-driven image manipulation to target individuals with defamatory political disinformation.