Chandigarh: Amid the video row, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann Wednesday rejected allegations that the forensic report that gave a clean chit to him was fabricated and lashed out at the opposition parties, alleging that they have joined hands to defame him.
Mann’s remarks came a day after the Haryana Police arrested two men on a complaint regarding alleged procurement of a fabricated forensic report related to a viral video linked to the controversy involving him.
In a video message, the AAP leader said for the past several days, his fake videos were being released. When they could not find anything, they are trying to defame me on the religious front, he said, targeting the Congress, BJP and the Akali Dal.
He reiterated his stance that it was not him in the purported objectionable video, claiming that the person who is seen in the clip does not match his height and physique.
By making that video viral, I was declared guilty, he said.
Mann said he received calls from many people who are convinced that it was a fake video.
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The CM claimed the forensic examination of the purported video had been done. The BJP has now attacked the owners of these forensic labs as Akali, Congress and the BJP have joined hands, he said while referring to the Gurugram police action.
By scaring the lab owners with the registration of FIR and torturing or threatening them, they want to get a statement from them to claim that money was taken for preparing fabricated reports, claimed Mann.
He alleged that the Congress, Akalis and the BJP have come together with a sole motive of defaming him.
Neither they are able to show their faces socially nor politically in Punjab. They have now decided to defame me on religious grounds, he said, claiming that every day, his fake videos were being released on their social media handles.
I am your person and I will continue to work this way, he said and listed measures taken by his government like free electricity, water and giving jobs.
It does not affect me as long as you are with me, he said.
Lashing out at the Congress, Akali Dal and the BJP, he said these parties have formed a sanjha morcha as they cannot compete with him politically.
Accusing the opposition of being arrogant, he said they have no issue against him and cannot tolerate the huge gatherings at his public interaction programmes.
You (the public) have to decide. I firmly stand by Punjab, he asserted.
The Haryana Police Tuesday arrested two men after registering a case on a complaint by a person who alleged that he was approached for procuring a fabricated forensic report of a viral video linked to the controversy involving the Punjab chief minister.
The development came amid a political storm triggered by the alleged objectionable video over which the Akal Takht, the supreme temporal body of Sikhs, had issued an edict against Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann June 15.
The edict came as Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Kuldeep Singh Gargajj claimed that the video — purportedly showing a man resembling Mann — was found to be authentic by the two forensic laboratories.
Mann has already rejected the video, saying it was false propaganda aimed at defaming him.
According to the FIR registered in Gurugram, complainant Jaspreet, a resident of Sirsa in Haryana, has alleged that he was pressured, threatened and coerced into getting forensic reports related to the video with a predetermined conclusion that the video in question was created and manipulated by artificial intelligence and that the person seen in the video was not the Punjab CM.
In his complaint, Jaspreet, who is associated with digital forensics, cyber investigation and electronic evidence analysis, claimed that after reviewing the material which was provided to him, he told them that the quality, nature and source of the video material were insufficient to provide a reliable forensic opinion.
In a statement, the Gurugram Police said it acted swiftly to expose an alleged conspiracy involving the preparation of fake forensic and cyber analysis reports related to a viral video.