Kancha Gachibowli row: Police summon Telangana IAS officer Smita Sabharwal

Hyderabad: Police have issued a notice to Telangana IAS officer and tourism principal secretary Smita Sabharwal for sharing an artificial intelligence (AI) generated picture depicting the destruction of the 400-acre land in Kancha Gachibowli recently.

Smita Sabharwal had retweeted a photo on her X account on March 31, that showed bulldozers lined up near the Mushroom Rocks located inside the University of Hyderabad campus in Kancha Gachibowli, with a peacock and a deer seen in front of the bulldozers. The police have reportedly identified the picture as an AI-generated photo.

According to Gachibowli station house officer Md Habeebullah Khan, the Telangana IAS officer Smita Sabharwal has been served a notice under Section 179 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) which deals with the police officer’s power to require the attendance of witnesses at a police station or other specified location to provide information about a case they are investigating.