NEW DELHI: BJP on Wednesday demanded an FIR against Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann and some state govt officials under the state’s newly enacted anti-sacrilege law as it showed purported visuals and text messages involving the accused, including cops, in the case of fabrication of a forensic report to reject a video allegedly showing Mann defiling Sikh gurus as fake.BJP likened the AAP govt in the state to the Mughals for belittling the sentiments of Sikhs. The party has seized on the edict of Akal Takht, the highest authority in Sikhism, against Mann to sharpen its attack on Punjab govt ahead of the assembly election in the state early next year.The Akal Takht had dubbed the video authentic after getting its own forensic reports and called the CM “guru dokhi” (anti-guru) and “Khalsa panth virodhi” (anti-Khalsa panth). Delhi govt minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa said Punjab police officers and persons linked with a private laboratory had colluded to produce a report declaring the video fake in what was an attempt to undermine the authority of Akal Takht. The BJP neta said inquiries pointed to the involvement of Ludhiana commissioner Swapan Sharma and SP Jashandeep Singh in the episode. Sirsa said as the investigation progressed, it emerged “Mann’s blue-eyed boy, Sharma, and SP Jashandeep Singh, through a person named Jaspreet Singh in Haryana, arranged a meeting at a hotel in Gurugram with a forensic laboratory”.“Money (Rs 10 lakh) was exchanged during the meeting, and the video was heavily edited to make it appear as if Mann was not present in it and the video was fake.”
