A new controversy emerged on Tuesday regarding the case of the controversial video featuring Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. Following the filing of an FIR, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) state president Aman Arora stated that since the BJP is in power in Haryana, they could orchestrate anything; he dismissed the narrative behind the FIR as fabricated and fake.
He argued that if the BJP were genuinely interested in revealing the truth, they would be investigating who created the video, who acted in it, who financed it, and who was responsible for its dissemination. Meanwhile, the Haryana Police revealed that the two accused arrested from Gurugram are Arun Mahendru, a resident of Sirsa, and Ankit, a resident of Jind.
Pressure exerted on Jassi to prepare a report
The two separate labs—’Cyber Yaan’ and ‘Cyper Sentinel’—cited in the preparation of the reports do not physically exist. This legal action was initiated based on a complaint filed by Jaspreet Jassi, a digital forensics expert from Sirsa. Jassi alleged that he had met with Punjab government officials at a hotel in Gurugram, where they pressured him to prepare a report and even paid him ₹10 lakh for the task.
The controversy surrounding the video began on June 15, when the Sri Akal Takht Sahib declared Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann ‘anti-Panth’ and ‘anti-Guru’.
CM dismisses video as fake
Three days later, the Chief Minister dismissed the video as fake, stating that the person appearing in it was someone else. Cabinet Minister Harpal Cheema and the state media in-charge, Baltej Pannu, also made the two forensic reports public, claiming that an analysis of over 1,100 frames in the forensic labs had proven that the individual in the video did not match the Chief Minister.
Complainant reports receiving a call via WhatsApp
The complainant, Jaspreet, stated that he works in the field of forensic and cyber-related technical services. On June 15, he received a call from an individual via WhatsApp. He identified himself as an official from the Punjab government and stated that he had a task to complete. A video featuring the Chief Minister of Punjab was circulating, and he needed to get an investigation report prepared for it. When the request was initially declined, the official suggested getting the report from one of the laboratories in Delhi.
