The Induction Motor (IM) is one of the most frequently used prime movers in most industrial and transportation systems. The motor's stable and safe operation directly influences the secure and reliable operation of such prime movers. Developing an intelligent fault diagnosis system for such motors is very significant. This paper presents an intelligent fault diagnosis method based on the improved functionality of a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) through its hyperparameter optimization using a nature‐inspired Artificial Bee Colony Optimization (ABCO) algorithm. The proposed diagnostic method introduces and analyses various possible mechanical and electrical faults in the IM. The validation of the proposed method is presented with three different modalities, including vibration, acoustic, and infrared thermography, with their comparative performance analysis. Vibration and acoustic‐based detection are done with time‐frequency scalograms using Constant Q Transform (CQT), which provides enhanced time resolution for lower and higher frequencies. The obtained result indicates that the infrared thermography‐based anomaly detection outperforms the vibration and acoustic‐based diagnosis with 100% classification accuracy. The results signify the potential to diagnose different mechanical and electrical faults in IM with substantial reliability and robustness.