Chandigarh: Punjab Police on Tuesday registered an FIR against Canadian resident Jagman Samra for allegedly publishing on social media fake videos of chief minister Bhagwant Mann.
A senior police officer told ThePrint that it appears to be a case of “personal enmity”.
“The accused was once known to the CM but relations between the two turned sour. Samra has tried to bring a bad name to the chief minister,” the officer said.
Samra posted the videos, which show the CM with some women, on two Facebook accounts on Tuesday. He said this was “only a trailer” and he will release more videos in the coming days.
He also claimed that the videos were genuine and he will pay Rs 5 crore or $1 million if these are found to have been created through artificial intelligence.
The cyber cell of the Mohali police took suo-motu cognizance of the videos and registered an FIR under sections 340(2) (using a forged document or electronic record), 353 (1) (circulate false information), 353(2) (statements conducing to public mischief), 351(2) (criminal intimidation), 336(4) (forgery intended to harm reputation) of BNS and provisions of the IT Act.
“Material uploaded by the user of the Facebook account named Jagman Samra has been posted with malafide intention to promote enmity… The content is vulgar, harmful and has the potential to incite hatred, enmity or ill will amongst different groups of people. Preliminary examination also suggests that the material in question may be AI generated…,” the FIR seen by ThePrint says.
Sources in the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said Samra belongs to Sangrur, Mann’s home district. He was a staunch supporter of the CM for several years, but has been critical more recently, they said.
This is an updated version with the correct name of the accused.
(Edited by Prerna Madan)
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