Facing criticism from opposition parties over a purported video of a blasphemous act, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Thursday again denied he was in the clip and claimed that the “impostor in the footage was wearing a mask resembling his face”.Mann, who had distanced himself from the video on Wednesday as well, called it a “conspiracy” by the Opposition to defame him and his government. During an earlier appearance at the Akal Takht, the CM had described the video “AI-generated”.Playing out the video during a press conference in Mohali, the CM said, “The actor in the video is wearing a prosthetic mask. But the scar visible on my throat is absent on his. Our height and physique also don’t match. He deliberately wore sunglasses to conceal his eyes as otherwise his true identity would have been revealed.”Mann claimed that Canada-based Jagman Samra, whom he called a “blackmailer” and a “drug addict”, had shot the video in a hotel room in Abbotsford. “The mask was delivered to Samra in a car and he can be seen holding it. It was later placed on another individual’s face to shoot a video. I have not visited Canada since November 2016 and the hotel room’s design itself reflects the construction style that became popular only after 2017-18. Moreover, who places photographs of Guru Sahib inside a hotel room?”He said the same hotel room had been used to shoot other videos targeting him. “All were shot the same day using the same impostor wearing the mask,” he said. The CM claimed Samra had previously blackmailed the son of a former Union Agriculture Minister and demanded huge sums of money.Claiming that those behind the video had been identified and would be exposed after verification, he blamed opposition parties SAD, Congress and BJP for “joining forces to malign and discredit him” on a religious issue ahead of the Assembly elections. He said he would present facts along with evidence before the Akal Takht.The CM said the opposition parties were baffled by his religious initiatives, including the strict anti-sacrilege law, waiving tax on vehicles carrying Palki Sahib, holding the Assembly session at Anandpur Sahib to mark the 350th Shaheedi Diwas and granting ‘holy city’ status to three cities.Irked over flex boards coming up in villages asking people to boycott him, Mann questioned the role of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee. “Boards have been put up outside gurdwaras asking people to boycott Bhagwant Mann following directions from the Akal Takht, whose supreme authority I have always respected. Why such boards were not put up against (SAD chief) Sukhbir Badal when he was declared a tankhaiya?” he said.Referring to a video released from the Akal Takht proceedings that declared him ‘Guru Dokhi’, he said, “I had requested the proceedings be telecast live, but I was told a recording would be kept only for the Panj Pyaras. Now, that recording is being selectively released after editing.” He said the “evidence presented today would also be sent to the Akal Takht, with a request to examine it thoroughly. How can a person wearing a mask be declared Bhagwant Mann?”The Akal Takht had issued the edict against Mann on June 15. Both the Akal Takht and the AAP have since come up with contradicting forensic reports on the authenticity of the video.The Haryana Police on Tuesday arrested two men from Gurugram on a complaint regarding alleged procurement of a fabricated forensic report related to the video. In the FIR, it is alleged that employees of two private laboratories were coerced into producing a “clean chit report” to exonerate the CM. “The charges regarding two Punjab IPS officers travelling to Gurugram are false,” said Mann.