Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has reiterated that the alleged sacrilege video was a “malicious attempt by the opposition parties to defame" him and his government. This is the second time in two days that the CM has tried to distance himself from the “religious" controversy.
Earlier, Mann had contended that it was an AI-generated video, but today, he claimed that a prosthetic mask and sunglasses were used to hide the real identity of the person in the said video.
Playing out the purported video at a press conference in Mohali, Mann said, “The actor is wearing a prosthetic mask in the video. The scar on my throat is missing in the actor’s throat in the video and his physical features do not match with mine. The actor has deliberately put up sunglasses to hide his eyes as it exposes his real identity."
The Punjab CM alleged that the conspiracy was the handiwork of Jagman Samra, “a blackmailer" who got a prosthetic mask — a sculpted, wearable makeup appliance made of foam latex or silicone — made and shot this viral video in Canada. “He has also made a mask of Arvind Kejriwal. A joint forum (of opposition parties) is behind this targeted attack which will be revealed in the days to come," he said.
Mann asserted that he would submit the facts in a video to the Akal Takht and the police so that action could be taken against people responsible for it.
On mediapersons’ query if Samra was his friend, Mann bluntly replied, “Samra is not my friend, he had met me only once but I know that he has a tainted past. He lives in Abbotsford, Canada.” He added that he did not go to Canada after 2016 whereas the opposition was claiming that the video was from 2018-19.
Mann, 52, recounted the works done by his government for the religious institution and said that he was being vilified by the political masters of a religious institution. “Everyday, new edicts are being issued to defame me. For putting up boards to boycott me, I want to ask the SGPC why such boards were not put up against Sukhbir Badal when he was declared a ‘tankhayyia’. I am a humble Sikh who respects the Akal Takht. I am not in that video. My physical features do not match with the figure in the video."
A political row had erupted over an alleged objectionable video of the CM, over which the Akal Takht had issued an edict against Mann on June 15. Since then, both the Akal Takht and AAP have come up with contradicting forensic reports.
The Gurugram police, meanwhile, have arrested two suspects after a complaint by a forensic expert in connection with a viral “sacrilege" video involving CM Mann. In the FIR it is alleged that employees of two private facilities, Cipher Sentinel Lab and Cyberyan Labs, were coerced into producing a predetermined “clean chit" report to exonerate the CM from the purported video.
