Doctored video of Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh goes viral; case registered

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Chandigarh: The Punjab Police on Saturday registered a case after a "doctored" and "malicious" video of Chief Minister Amarinder Singh went viral on social media, a spokesman said.

The state police's cyber cell has registered the case under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and provisions of the Information Technology (IT) Act against an unknown person, the spokesman of the police department said.

The preliminary inquiry in the case has revealed that the "malicious" video was uploaded and "doctored" by an unknown person with the username 'Harsh Sofat' (@harshsofat9) on a web-based application, he said. 

Police have also initiated steps to get the malicious content removed from all social media sites, the spokesman said.

In the video, the voice of the chief minister was altered and deliberately slowed down to create an impression that he is under the influence of some intoxicant, he said.

The spokesman said the video was "willfully manipulated, uploaded and circulated" on social media platforms with the sole intent of tarnishing the chief minister's image".

The case was registered under Section 67 of the IT Act and sections 500 (defamation) and 505 (public mischief) of the IPC.

Initial investigations by the cyber cell revealed that the video was created using a Chinese app 'TikTok', which allows users to dub and alter voices on recorded videos, he said.

The user, according to the police, is following two accounts 'thiscouple' (@mdeepkur87) and 'Being Nawaz' (@funnyyadavji), the spokesman said.

The unknown person has three followers, @Happy mundhon (@sukhdevsukhahappy), 'Oyekhurmi' (@oyekhurmi) and 'Kinda Kinda' (@kindakinda9) on the TikTok app, he said. 

The video was initially circulated on a WhatsApp group, 'Youth group nabhaz', and also uploaded on a Facebook Page, 'Majha Akali Page.

Further investigations are underway to identify the suspect, the spokesman said.