The Haryana Police on Tuesday claimed to have arrested two persons from Gurugram over an alleged conspiracy to generate a ‘fabricated’ forensic report, which claimed that the person committing blasphemous acts in a purported video was not Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.
According to the FIR lodged at the DLF Sector 29 police station, Punjab Government officials had “paid Rs 10 lakh to employees of Cipher Sentinel Lab and Cyberyan Labs to obtain a fabricated report”. A police statement said the FIR was lodged in a ‘highly sensitive video matter’ on the complaint of one Jaspreet Singh, who manages the two labs.
Those arrested were identified as Ankit Mahendru and Arun, both employees of the labs.
According to the FIR, Jaspreet stated, “I was specifically instructed by Ankit and Arun to generate a report that would definitively rule the video as doctored, regardless of the actual data.” He claimed, “When I raised questions about the authenticity of the process, I was told that the ‘client’ required a specific result for political immunity, and I was threatened that my refusal would result in professional and personal consequences.”
Hours before the Haryana Police issued the statement, Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia claimed that a Commissioner of Police from Punjab and an SP had struck a deal at a Gurugram hotel to obtain a ‘fabricated’ report in favour of Mann. Majithia also named the two police officials in the video statement.
Officiating Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Kuldip Singh Gargaj wrote a cryptic message on social media late on Tuesday evening: “Great is your court, and true is your throne.”
