Jalandhar court orders removal of ‘doctored’ video of ex-Delhi CM Atishi
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Jalandhar: A trial court in Punjab’s Jalandhar on Thursday ordered the removal and blocking of a “doctored” video featuring former Delhi Chief Minister Atishi, ruling that its circulation posed a threat to public order and religious harmony.
The video, which allegedly showed Atishi making controversial remarks about the ninth Sikh guru, Guru Tegh Bahadur, was found to be digitally manipulated with the intent to incite communal tension. Acting on an application filed by the cybercrime police, the court of the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate observed that the content was objectionable and potentially inflammatory.
Invoking Rule 3(d) of the Information Technology Rules, 2021, the court directed social media platforms Meta (Facebook and Instagram), X, and Telegram to remove the video. It ordered that the content be taken down immediately and, in any case, within 24 hours of receipt of the order, and sought a compliance report within 10 days.
The court further directed that all identical, mirror, or derivative versions of the video be blocked as and when identified by the state Cybercrime Department.
Reacting to the order, Aam Aadmi Party national media in-charge Anurag Dhanda said the Jalandhar court had delivered a significant ruling, noting that the fake video was released by Delhi Minister Kapil Mishra and amounted to disrespect of Sikh gurus. He said the court had found the video shared by Mishra to be doctored.
Earlier, the Jalandhar Police Commissionerate had registered an FIR on a complaint by Iqbal Singh over the uploading and circulation of the edited video of Atishi. Several social media posts had surfaced containing a short clip purportedly showing Atishi, the Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly, making derogatory and blasphemous remarks about Sikh gurus, accompanied by highly inflammatory captions.
A police spokesperson said the investigation was carried out in a scientific manner. The video clip containing Atishi’s audio was downloaded from Kapil Mishra’s social media account and sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory in Mohali for examination.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann had also reacted strongly to the issue, accusing the BJP of deliberately tampering with Atishi’s Assembly video as part of a conspiracy to provoke communal unrest in Punjab. He said the secular Punjab government would not allow such political theatrics to succeed, describing the act as ‘beadbi’ (sacrilege).
The Chief Minister added that the video was edited with false subtitles and that forensic findings had conclusively established that Atishi never used the word “Guru”.
With IANS inputs