A video appearing to show West Bengal's Education Minister Bratya Basu taking bribe is fake and AI generated. The video has been circulated as a news bulletin, apparently showing the incumbent MLA exposed in a sting operation by one 'Tehalka TV'.
BOOM was able to establish that Basu's video is AI-generated using Google's SynthId. We identified several anomalies in the video that are typical of AI-generated visuals. Our partners at the Deepfakes Analysis Unit (DAU) also confirmed that the video was created using Google AI.
The 36-second video appears as a news bulletin, featuring the logo of “Tehalka TV” in Hindi along with Bangla text claiming that a video of Bratya Basu was leaked ahead of Phase 2 of the state elections. In the footage, Basu is purportedly seen accepting money from an unidentified person, smiling, and signing a document.
The Claim
BJP leader Agnimitra Paul shared the video with the caption, "Allegations are emerging against West Bengal’s Education Minister, Bratya Basu, with claims that bribes are being taken after file approvals. Such serious charges demand a transparent and impartial investigation."
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What We Found: Video Was Generated Using AI
1. No Credible News Report: We first noticed that the video features a news channel name in Hindi, while the other text in the bulletin appear in Bangla, which seems unusual. A further keyword search on Facebook and YouTube did not yield any channel sharing the video report under the same name and logo. Moreover, the format of the video does not align with standard news bulletins; we were unable to find any credible media outlet reporting on the alleged sting operation.
2. Video Shows Typical AI-Generated Flaws: We then found several discrepancies in the video despite a high pixilation of it. We cropped the relevant segments and examined flaws that are typically seen in AI-generated visuals. Since AI-generated videos often struggle to render natural hand movements, we focused on the 16–19 second segment where Basu’s left palm appears unusually large at first. As he purportedly takes the money and places it on the table beside him, his left hand appears to be extremely blurry. Basu's fingers also appear distorted and merge unnaturally with the object he is holding with both hands.
We also found a similar glitch from around the 22-second mark, where his fingers appear to merge with the pages as he flips them. Additionally, a frame-by-frame analysis shows that the pen in Bratya Basu’s hand changes shape and distorts itself during the motion.
3. Confirmation from Google's AI Detector: Taking a cue from these findings, we tested the audio using AI voice detection tools Hiya and Resemble AI, both of which indicated that the audio is not real and showed signs of AI generation.
For further verification, we consulted our partners at the Deepfakes Analysis Unit (DAU), who analysed the video using Google’s AI detection tool, SynthID. The SynthID test confirmed that the video is not authentic and was generated using Google AI. SynthID works by detecting digital watermarks embedded across Google’s generative AI products. According to Google, these markers are not visible to humans but can be identified by SynthID’s detection technology.
DAU also tested the video using another AI detection tool, Resemble AI’s deepfake detector, which too confirmed that the video contains AI-generated content.
