Reeling from a raging controversy over an alleged sacrilege video, Punjab Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Bhagwant Mann has maintained that he was not the person in the video and that it was made to defame him.Addressing a press conference Thursday, Mann showed a video in which a Canada-based man, Jagmandeep Singh Samra, was purportedly seen holding a mask resembling the CM’s face. Showing another clip, the CM said the person in it was wearing a mask resembling him and that this was visible from his side profile.AdvertisementAn NRI based in Canada, Samra, who has been facing multiple criminal cases in Punjab, first came to public attention soon after Mann took charge as the CM in March 2022. He then took to social media to start making controversial claims about Mann’s personal life, claiming to be in possession of his “compromising videos”.Also Read | Akal Takht releases video of Mann backing probe into controversial clipIn October 2025, Samra released the alleged sacrilege videos, after which the Punjab Police’s cyber cell registered a criminal case against him. He posted the videos on his Facebook and Instagram accounts and offered to pay one million dollars to anyone who could prove the videos were AI-generated or inauthentic. He also claimed to be in possession of eight such videos including those of other senior AAP leaders.In January 2026, the Akal Takht, the highest temporal authority of the Sikh community, took cognisance of one such video. It then summoned the CM and sent the alleged sacrilege video for verification to some central government-recognised forensic labs.AdvertisementMann first claimed that the video was fake and created with AI. After the forensic report procured by the Akal Takht stated that the video was not fake, the CM said he was not the person in the video.On June 15, the Akal Takht declared Mann “Guru dokhi” (anti-Guru) and “Khalsa panth virodhi” (anti-Khalsa panth) over the alleged sacrilege video.Also Read | Amid Punjab sacrilege video firestorm, why Bhagwant Mann is not on back footThe CM, however, claimed that Samra had shot the videos with an actor using a mask resembling his face. Mann also told the Akal Takht that Samra was a “drug addict, blackmailer, and mentally unfit”. He repeated such allegations at his Thursday press conference.In a live video response, Samra rejected Mann’s claims against him and the allegation that he had demanded money for the controversial video. He also denied the charge that he was an agent of the AAP’s rivals.He claimed that the video was recorded by someone else in a hotel room in Canada in 2014 and that former AAP MLA, late Jarnail Singh, was in that room when the video was shot. He also alleged that a BJP MP had handed him the video and that the AAP leaders had it in their possession before it reached his hands. He also claimed that a forensic report from a Canadian lab had authenticated the videos.Also Read | ‘Why seek forensic report?’: AAP fears self-goal as Bhagwant Mann video row blows upAccording to Samra, he belongs to a known family in Punjab. He says his parents were retired principals and that he grew up in Fagguwala village in Sangrur district. He also claims that his grandfather was a freedom fighter from Punjab and that Mann had started his electoral debut campaign in the Lehra seat for the 2012 Assembly election on his then People’s Party of Punjab (PPP)’s ticket from his grandfather’s memorial in Fagguwala.Samra says he is currently based in Abbotsford in Canada, where he works as a farmer. He claims he knew Mann from their school days and had attended his first wedding event. He also says he was engaged with the PPP during its formative years after it was formed by Manpreet Badal in 2011, and that his conflict with Mann dated back to that period. Mann switched to the AAP ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.you may likeApart from farming, Samra claims to have launched Khalas Coin, a cryptocurrency. His crypto activities sparked a controversy when a Patiala-based NGO, Kisan Mazdoor Cooperative International (KMCI), alleged that he had initially offered to invest crores in their farmer-training programme but later misused their official website to sell his cryptocurrency to farmers and youth.Also Read | Arvind Kejriwal to Bhagwant Mann: AAP rejigs Punjab game plan, bets big on CM for 2027In 2020, Punjab Police registered two immigration fraud cases against Samra in Faridkot and Bathinda. He was accused of allegedly cheating a Ferozepur resident of Rs 65 lakh. He was arrested in December 2021 in the Faridkot case and denied bail.In January 2022, while admitted to Faridkot Medical College Hospital, he escaped police custody and fled to Canada via Delhi and Nepal, leading to the suspension of several guards of Faridkot Jail. He was declared a “proclaimed offender” by a Faridkot court in 2023, with a Look Out Circular issued against him.