One Crime, Many Statutes: Complexity with Indian Cybercrime Regulations

A deepfake video puts words in a businessman's mouth, generated by a rival to defame him. That single act now triggers liability under three separate tracks: BNS defamation provisions, the IT Act's 2026 rules on synthetically generated information, and possibly the DPDP Act too. This paper traces why. BNS 2023 folded cyber offences into general criminal law rather than giving them a dedicated chapter, so forgery, cheating, and organised crime sections now carry electronic language stitched in, unevenly. Section 336 names "electronic records" outright. Section 356, the defamation provision that would actually catch Mr M's deepfake, says nothing about digital or synthetic media at all, leaving courts to stretch it case by case. India hasn't failed to legislate on cybercrime. It's legislated three times over, in three places that don't talk to each other.