New Delhi: The Haryana Police have arrested two individuals for allegedly conspiring to forge forensic and cyber analysis reports related to a controversial video purportedly showing Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann. A day after the arrests, Opposition parties have attacked the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in the state on Wednesday (June 24).The two arrested in connection with the case, Ankit Bhardwaj and Arun Mahendru, were contract employees with the National Investigation Agency (NIA), The Indian Express reported. The Gurugram police said that the laboratories they represented did not exist.“Ankit had given a report of video analysis in the name of Cipher Sentinel lab. On the ground, Cipher Sentinel lab does not exist. This lab is not registered with any government department and he is not even an employee at any laboratory,” Naveen Sharma, assistant commissioner of police (Crime), Gurgaon was quoted as saying by IE.“Similarly, Arun Mahendru gave a report of video analysis in the name of Cyber Yaan lab, which also does not exist. Arun is also not an employee of any forensic laboratory and yet he signed the report in the name of Cyber Yaan,” he added.In their reports, Bharadwaj and Mahendru noted that the person seen in the video was not Mann.The police reportedly arrested the two individuals after a forensic expert complained that two senior Punjab Police officers had officered him Rs 10 lakh in exchange of preparing a favourable forensic report on the video, as per the IE report.The opposition attacksThe Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the matter. Senior SAD leader Maheshinder Singh Grewal said the case had grown too big for a state-level probe. “Only a CBI probe can get to the bottom of this issue as it has become an inter-State case and there is a money trail which needs to be investigated,” he said.The Congress went further, demanding Mann’s immediate resignation and an FIR against him under Punjab’s new sacrilege law. State Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring said Mann should also appear before the Akal Takht (highest temporal seat of Sikhs) and make amends.“Mann must present himself before Akal Takht and seek forgiveness,” he said.Senior Congress leaders added that if an FIR was registered in Gurugram, it would put to rest any doubts about whether the AAP government was attempting a cover-up.Former Punjab BJP president Sunil Jakhar said, “This is the issue of how an arrogant person is challenging the supreme Sri Akal Takht Sahib.”The controversy started in October 2025, when a person resembling Mann was allegedly seen sprinkling alcohol on images of Sikh gurus in a viral video. The Punjab Police registered an FIR. In January 2026, the Akal Takht summoned Mann, who denied being the person in the video and said that it was generated using AI and was “completely fake”.The situation escalated on June 15, when the Akal Takht declared Mann ‘Guru Dokhi’, a betrayer of the Guru, and ‘Khalsa Panth Virodhi’ which means anti-community, accusing him of making false statements.Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Kuldeep Singh Gargaj said two forensic laboratories had confirmed the video was authentic. Three days later, the AAP produced findings from two separate independent laboratories saying there was no match between the person in the video and the chief minister.The Akal Takht has written to Haryana Police asking them to pursue the matter seriously and expose everyone involved and ensure those responsible face strict punishment.Mann has repeatedly asserted that the video in question is fabricated and has been put together by political opponents who had run out of ways to challenge his government’s track record.“Those who have no issue left against my government are now trying to tarnish my image through fabricated propaganda,” he said.He also alleged that the forensic laboratory was being targeted because “the BJP, Akali Dal and Congress have united against me.”He also hit out at the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) over posters calling for his boycott being displayed outside gurdwaras.“Politics has fallen to a very low level because they have no other way to oppose me. They continuously try to defame me through one accusation or another. Now the SGPC has ordered the putting up of posters outside Gurdwara Sahibs calling for my boycott. Why were similar posters not put up against the Akali Dal or Sukhbir Singh Badal [SAD president] after they admitted responsibility for incidents of sacrilege?” he said.The assembly elections in Punjab are due in early 2027.