Gurugram/Chandigarh, June 24 -- The Haryana Police on Tuesday arrested two men over allegations that unnamed senior Punjab government officials used pressure, threats and a cash inducement to procure forged forensic reports declaring a controversial video involving Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann as AI-generated, a claim the ruling AAP dismissed as a politically motivated probe by the BJP-led Haryana government. Arun Mahendru, 25, of Sirsa, and Ankit Sharma, 25, of Kharak Gagar, Jind, were arrested following an FIR at the DLF police station in Gurgaon's Sector 29, lodged on the complaint of Jaspreet Singh, a cyber-forensic professional from Sirsa. The FIR, registered after an inquiry by Gurugram ACP Crime-1, invokes Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita provisions covering cheating, cheating by personation, forgery of electronic records and documents, and organised crime along with sections of the Information Technology Act that deal with tampering with computer source documents and cheating by personation using computer resources. Naveen Sharma, ACP (crime), said the Arun was a Haryana government employee while Ankit was a contractual employee of the Delhi government. He said the duo had supplied Jaspreet with forensic certificates purporting to come from two laboratories, Cyberyan and Cipher Sentinel. "Both of these laboratories are fake and non-existing," Sharma said. According to Jaspreet's complaint, he was summoned to the Crowne Plaza hotel in Gurgaon's Sector 29 over two consecutive nights - June 15 and June 16 - where he met a person who introduced himself as a senior Punjab government official, along with another official referred to by those present as "bade sahib". He was told a video allegedly featuring Punjab chief minister and circulating on social media needed to be "certified as AI-generated and unreliable". Jaspreet said he told those present that the video's quality and provenance were inadequate for any reliable forensic conclusion on facial comparison, anthropometric analysis or deepfake detection. Jaspreet alleged he was pressed again at a follow-up meeting, and that pressure escalated to threats against him and his family, along with roughly Rs.10 lakh purportedly forced into his car as an inducement. He said he was directed to contacts in the Delhi-NCR region who could procure the required reports, and was introduced to Mahendru and to the second accused, who in turn supplied him with the forged certificates. ACP Sharma said the investigation was at an early stage given the sensitivity of the allegations, and that further arrests were possible. Reacting to the FIR, cabinet minister and AAP's Punjab unit president Aman Arora said in a statement that since Haryana was governed by the BJP, the Haryana Police was under its control and the entire administration answered to it. "They can do whatever they want, initiate any inquiry they choose and make any allegation they wish," Arora said. "If the BJP is genuinely interested in uncovering the truth, why is it not investigating who created this video, who acted in it, who financed it, and who was responsible for circulating it?" Arora said all of Punjab knew the person seen in the video was not Mann, and argued that had the Punjab government wanted a "favourable" forensic report, it could simply have approached a laboratory within the state, where "law and order is under their government". "The fact that this was not done clearly shows that the objective was to obtain an impartial assessment of the video," he said. Seizing on the development, the Opposition stepped up its attack on the AAP government, seeking chief minister Bhagwant Mann's resignation and demanding a thorough investigation into the allegations surrounding the purported forensic reports. Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring said Mann must resign as he had lost all moral authority to continue "after trying to defy the authority of the Akal Takht". He alleged that Mann had not only tried to defy the Akal Takht, but also tried to manage fabricated reports to prove it wrong. Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal demanded a criminal case against Mann for allegedly insulting Sikh Gurus, challenging the supremacy of Akal Takht, presenting false reports before the Sikh community, and using Punjab Police officers for what he described as a serious crime. Former Punjab BJP president Sunil Jakhar sought an investigation within two days under the supervision of the Punjab and Haryana high court. He also demanded that a case be registered against the chief minister under the sacrilege law. Issuing an official statement, Jaskaran Singh, media adviser of the Akal Takht secretariat, said the Haryana Police should investigate the matter with complete seriousness and expose every individual involved in this conspiracy, while also ensuring strict punishment for them....