Following the arrest of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Parambans Singh  Romana for allegedly sharing a doctored video, the SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Thursday submitted a cyber crime complaint against Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann for uploading several morphed and defamatory videos from his official social media handle and demanded immediate action against him.

Romana was arrested after Punjabi singer Kanwar Grewal denied making derogatory remarks against Punjab and Delhi chief ministers while singing a song during a stage show and alleged the video shared by the SAD leader had been doctored.  Romana, however, termed his arrest a political vendetta.

“Strongly condemn the political vendetta unleashed against the Shiromani Akali Dal by CM Bhagwant Mann by arresting party general secretary Romana on trumped up charges. Aam Aadmi Party wants to suppress the voice of the opposition and deflect attention from the real issues of Punjabis and hide its failures. SAD will not be intimidated by such cowardly acts..,” the SAD chief Badal said.

He said the video, on the basis of which a case had been registered against Parambans Romana, had been in circulation since 2016 and many political leaders had uploaded it on their pages. “Action should be taken against the person who has morphed the video and not Romana,” he added.

“The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and its top leadership regularly upload morphed videos as well as defamatory content on social media against us. The police should register cases against them, including chief minister Bhagwant Mann, as per our complaint,” the SAD chief added.

The Aam Aadmi Party, however, blamed SAD and the Badal family for sharing the edited video of famous Punjabi singer Grewal.

AAP’s Punjab chief spokesperson Malvinder Singh Kang said this shows the low-level politics of SAD (Badal).  The Akali Dal leaders and the Badal family feel that by editing and distorting the video of a singer, the image of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann can be tarnished and their politics will shine, but it is not going to happen.

He played Grewal’s video in which the singer is saying that his video has been distorted. Grewal also condemned this in his video and said that this has been done as part of a conspiracy.