New Delhi: The Supreme Court Monday sought a forensic report in a sealed cover from the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) regarding the authenticity of leaked audio recordings that allegedly implicated Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh in fuelling the state’s ongoing ethnic conflict.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, who was representing the petitioner ‘The Kuki Organisation for Human Rights Trust (KOHUR)’, informed the apex court that the recordings were analysed by a private forensic lab, which concluded that there was a 93 percent match between the voice samples and that of CM Singh.
On its part, the Manipur government dismissed the recordings as doctored, saying that the police were conducting an investigation. “This doctored audio is a malicious attempt by certain sections to incite communal violence or to derail the peace process that has been initiated at multiple levels,” it had said in an official release in August last year.
KOHUR has requested a probe monitored by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the alleged role of the chief minister in the ethnic violence, raising concerns about the serious nature of the leaked audio transcripts. Manipur has been on the boil due to widespread violence between the Meitei and Kuki communities since 3 May 2023, resulting in at least 200 deaths, hundreds of injuries, and the displacement of thousands.
Citing the private forensic report in court, Bhushan said, “Truth Labs confirmed that it is 93 percent likely to be the voice of the chief minister,” adding, “Truth Labs are far more reliable than FSL reports.”
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar directed Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to submit the CFSL report by 24 March. “It is pointed out that the audio clips have been sent for examination by the CFSL. The report shall be produced in a sealed cover before the court on the next date of hearing,” the court said.
Bhushan further alleged that in the tapes, CM Singh is heard instructing that Meitei groups be allowed to seize state-owned weapons, assuring that he would prevent their arrest.
The forensic report by Hyderabad-based forensic services Truth Labs, dated 18 January, noted that the audio evidence was received on two pen drives. Truth Labs conducted the analysis using samples from a press conference and an interview featuring Biren Singh, both sourced from YouTube, alongside standard audio-video files marked with serial numbers S1 to S6.
“It has been found that the probability of the male speakers in the ‘Q/M (audio files)’ and ‘S/M (audio-video files)’ being the same person is 93%,” the report said. Samples Q1 to Q4 were provided on one pen drive, with Q1 being identified as the original audio and the others as excerpts from the main file.
“The intonation patterns of around 20 commonly uttered words found in the samples were similar,” it added, noting that “vowel distribution patterns” analysed for these and other words by the speakers in both sets of recordings “were found to be similar with high probability.”
The audio recordings were first released in parts on 7 August last year, with another segment released on 20 August.
(Edited by Radifah Kabir)
Also Read: Manipur accounted for 77% violent incidents in Northeast in 2024, says MHA in annual report