Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Cheema on Thursday claimed that two independent, government-recognised laboratories have found that the videos allegedly circulated by the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) to defame Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann are “fake".
Cheema claimed that the reports establish that the videos were created by impersonating Mann with the alleged intent to malign his image.
Without disclosing the identity of the laboratories, the minister said both institutions, located outside Punjab, had debunked the SAD’s allegations through a frame-by-frame technical analysis of the videos.
Mann has consistently maintained that the video in question was generated using artificial intelligence.
Addressing a press conference in Mohali, Cheema alleged that the SAD was targeting Mann for bringing in the Jagat Jot Sri Guru Granth Sahib Satkaar Act.
Recalling the past incidents of sacrilege in Punjab, he claimed that all such major incidents had taken place during the SAD-BJP regime.
“Today it has been proved that Sukhbir Badal is ‘Panth Virodhi’ and ‘Panth Dokhi’. His true face has been unmasked," Cheema alleged.
The Akal Takht on Monday had declared Bhagwant Mann ‘Guru Dokhi’ and ‘Khalsa Panth Virodhi’, accusing him of lying about the purported objectionable video.
Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Kuldeep Singh Gargajj, while pronouncing the edict, had claimed that the video circulating on social media — purportedly showing a man resembling Bhagwant Mann — had been found to be “authentic" by two forensic laboratories. The video was neither tampered with nor was it AI-generated, Gargajj had said.
