Chandigarh: Politics intensified in Punjab on Thursday over an allegedly AI-generated video of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, with the Bharatiya Janata Get together questioning Mann’s relationship with Jagmandeep Samra, an Indian man dwelling in Canada who’s accused of making and distributing the video.
Whereas BJP spokesperson Vineet Joshi mentioned the CM’s full silence within the video was “deafening”, AAP accused the BJP of participating in “character assassination” of Mann after failing to restrain him amongst different issues. Joshi additionally insisted that the business ought to make it clear that “he doesn’t know Samra, has by no means traveled together with her and Samra has by no means organized an abroad tour.”
Amid a flurry of press conferences by the BJP and AAP, Mann on Thursday briefly answered questions from media personnel concerning the video, saying the BJP had nothing to supply aside from “faux”.
The video purportedly reveals a number of girls in a room in a Punjabi business. The Punjab Police filed an FIR in opposition to Samra and dismissed the incident as nothing greater than an try by disgruntled miscreants who had been as soon as acquainted with the CM to tarnish his picture.
However the controversy has put an attention-grabbing individual within the highlight. This isn’t the primary time that Canadian-based defendant Jagmandeep Singh Samra, alias Jugnu, has made headlines. In 2020, he was indicted on two counts of immigration fraud. Two years later, he escaped from the hospital the place he was being handled in jail. In November 2023, he appeared within the notorious ‘Tomar Tape’ controversy.
Apparently, Samra himself has spoken out about all of the allegations in opposition to him in a collection of YouTube movies that he releases commonly.
So, who’s Jagamandeep Karma? ThePrint discovered that:
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‘Tomar Tapes’, a hashish farmer with 1000’s of followers
In accordance with his social pages, Samra is a Canadian blueberry and hashish farmer. He additionally claims to have launched ‘Khalas Coin’, a cryptocurrency. A number of of his posts on Fb are associated to forex bulletins.
The Indian-born man first revealed Mann’s video on two Fb pages in his title (every with greater than 30,000 followers) and on his private and enterprise Instagram accounts. The variety of followers is over 20,000. He even claims to pay $1 million to anybody who can show that these movies are usually not actual and had been generated by AI.
Samra additionally declared in his social media video that these clips are “simply trailers” and that he has eight such movies and plans to launch them within the coming days. He additional claimed to have comparable movies of different AAP leaders.
Responding to the FIR in opposition to him, Samra wrote on his Fb web page on Tuesday that he was “not likely involved” about it, including that even when “the federal government shuts down the Fb web page”, there are different avenues to launch the video.
Samra first made headlines in November 2023 after the discharge of the notorious ‘Tomar tape’ during which he allegedly had conversations about monetary transactions with Devendra Tomar, son of former Union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar, which went viral. Ms. Samra claimed that Tomar Jr. had talked about placing their belongings in a Canadian financial institution.
The ‘Tomar Tape’ turned a political scorching subject forward of the Madhya Pradesh meeting polls in the identical 12 months, with the state Congress calling it the “largest corruption scandal involving a central minister of the Bharatiya Janata Get together”. The Union Minister on the time claimed the tape was faux and a political plot in opposition to him.
New information have come to gentle within the viral video case during which Narendra Singh Tomar’s son Devendra Tomar made transactions price billions of {dollars}. The one who was on the video name with the minister’s son has launched a brand new video confirming your complete dialog.
The price of this entire situation is alleged to be 10 billion rupees, not 1 billion or 500 million rupees. pic.twitter.com/OdBVoot6bR
— MP Congress (@INCMP) November 14, 2023
Two immigration fraud instances had been registered in opposition to Samra in Faridkot and Bathinda in 2020, in accordance with senior police officers investigating the most recent case in opposition to him.
Samra was arrested within the Faridkot incident. He was denied bail within the case in September 2021, police mentioned. The courtroom order, accessed by ThePrint, states that Samra is suspected of defrauding a resident of Ferozepur to the tune of Rs 6.5 million. The complainant mentioned he paid Samra via the Immigration Workplace in Jalandhar to assist his household get visas to Canada.
In June 2022, Samra efficiently escaped whereas admitted to a Faridkot hospital and has been on the run ever since.
Police sources mentioned it was unclear how he reached Canada, however a separate FIR has been registered for evading arrest. “All we all know is that he first went to Delhi, then to Nepal and from there to Canada,” mentioned a senior police official.
In one in every of his movies posted on Tuesday, Samra mentioned he wouldn’t be deterred by the FIR in opposition to him and even talked about his escape. He additionally posted a replica of the FIR filed in reference to the escape.
In accordance with police, Samra was declared a declared offender by the courtroom in January 2023 and a warning discover was issued in opposition to him in March 2023.
offended at man
In an interview with a neighborhood YouTube channel in November 2023, Samra claimed that her grandfather was a “well-known freedom fighter from Punjab”. On his Fb web page, he claims to have a grasp’s diploma in English. literature from Ranbir College, Sangrur.
He even claimed that he was offended {that a} Jalandhar-based physician who needed to go to Canada to deal with his drug dependancy was denied a visa and even staged a protest in entrance of Parliament in Ottawa, whereas then-comedian Bhagwant Mann received a visa for an leisure present.
Final 12 months, Samra claimed to have been actively concerned with Patiala-based NGO Kisan Mazdoor Cooperative Worldwide (KMCI), which began an initiative to coach farmers in Punjab and make use of youth to supply their very own model of natural produce. Nonetheless, the NGO held a press convention final 12 months and mentioned that Samra, like different NRIs, had provided to take a position billions of {dollars} within the challenge, however as these youths and farmers began becoming a member of the motion, Samra started utilizing KCMI’s official web site to promote cryptocurrencies to them.
Political slugfest continues
BJP spokesperson Vineet Joshi mentioned in a press convention on Thursday that the individuals of Punjab have the correct to know whether or not Mann’s video is faux and whether or not the CM is aware of the accused.
In a separate press convention, Mann’s media advisor Bhartej Panu claimed that Punjab BJP president Ashwani Sharma and distinguished supporters of the celebration had been spreading these faux movies.
“These movies have been declared faux by the courtroom and ordered to be instantly faraway from social media inside 24 hours,” Panunu mentioned. The Punjab Cyber Cell had sought permission from a district courtroom in Mohali to take down the suspect’s Fb and Instagram pages. “The courtroom has clearly said that these movies ought to be deleted wherever they’re shared,” Panunu added.
“The CM has made it clear that the video is faux. That alone is sufficient to silence those that ask these questions,” Panunu instructed ThePrint.
Earlier within the day, state Bharatiya Janata Get together chief Sharma posted a screenshot of the video on X and mentioned, “The one who held a press convention over a trivial matter didn’t converse out on this matter. Why are you so quiet, Bhagwant Mann?” character”
A person who held press conferences even for trivial issues.
Why is he so silent concerning the alleged video?
Punjab wants solutions. @bagwantman Instructor, please clarify #Bhagwantman #AAPPNJAB pic.twitter.com/r60nIzmbzH— Ashwani Sharma (Prime Minister Modi’s household) (@AshwaniSNBC) October 23, 2025
In yet one more press convention, AAP MP Malwinder Khan listed a number of social media accounts of BJP leaders and supporters who shared the video. “Many of those individuals are followers of the Prime Minister. The Bharatiya Janata Get together has been unable to seek out any fault within the Prime Minister’s functioning ever because the Aam Aadmi Get together got here to energy about 4 years in the past and is doing all the pieces in its energy to nook the CM over the faux video,” Khan mentioned.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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