A video clip has surfaced purportedly showing industrialist Gautam Adani telling Uttarakhand chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat that industrialists were investing in the state “in fear of the government”.

With the video going viral, a rattled BJP government lodged a complaint with Cantonment police, Dehradun, on Sunday against unidentified people for “circulating the doctored conversation”.

According to the complaint by Ravi Bijarniya, assistant director of Uttarakhand’s information and public relations department, Adani had used the word “favour”, which was changed to “fear” in the video.

Adani, known for his proximity to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had attended the October 7-8 Uttarakhand Investors’ Summit in Dehradun and had an informal meeting with Rawat. Government sources, however, say the video clip shows their September 26 meeting at Rawat’s residence.

“It (the allegedly doctored video) is a conspiracy by those who don’t like the MoUs on Rs 124,000-crore worth of investments signed between the industrialists and the state government,” an aide to the chief minister told local journalists.

“The information and publicity department releases silent videos for the media every day. But this particular video was mistakenly released with audio, and someone got the opportunity to tamper with it.”

Nivedita Kukreti, senior superintendent of police, Dehradun, said: “We have sent the original and viral videos to the forensic science laboratory in the city.”

Kukreti said the video clip had been uploaded on a news portal, which later removed it. “We are trying to find out who provided this video to the portal,” she said.

Arun Kumar Saini, the investigating officer, said the forensic report would be available in two weeks.

The video has poor voice quality. Adani is also purportedly heard complaining of a traffic jam near Jolly Grant Airport, Dehradun.