SC Orders Forensic Probe into Audio Clip Allegedly Linking N. Biren Singh to Manipur Violence

The Supreme Court on Thursday directed for an examination of an audio clip allegedly linking former Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh to the ethnic violence in the northeastern state by the National Forensic Sciences University in Gujarat.

A bench of Justices Sanjay Kumar and K Vinod Chandran issued the direction after advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioner, 'Kuki Organisation for Human Rights Trust', an NGO, argued that they were placing on record the complete audio clip, which was more than two hours long.

The bench directed the National Forensic Sciences University (NFSU) to analyse the recording and compare the voice sample in it with the admitted voice samples of Singh.

It said, "Prashant Bhushan, counsel for the petitioner, states that the full audio clip of two hours and 36 minutes has been copied onto a pen drive from the original device. The said pen drive, being the first copy of the original, shall be furnished to the other side, to be forwarded to the NFSU for comparison with the admitted voice recordings of the individual concerned."

On January 7, the top court ordered a forensic examination of a 48-minute audio recording, which, the NGO alleged, pointed to the role of Singh in the 2023 ethnic violence in Manipur.

It had directed that the entire available leaked audio be forwarded to the NFSU, Gandhinagar, for forensic examination.

"The entire 48 minutes of the conversation in question, along with the admitted voice recordings of the former Manipur chief minister, are available... All the voice recordings furnished to the respondents by the learned counsel for the petitioner shall also be included therewith and forwarded to the National Forensic Science University in Gandhinagar," the bench had ordered then.

It had also asked the NFSU to expedite the process and submit the final report in a sealed cover.

The Supreme Court on Thursday directed for an examination of an audio clip allegedly linking former Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh to the ethnic violence in the northeastern state by the National Forensic Sciences University in Gujarat.

The top court had said that the audio clips in question may be examined to determine whether they were modified, edited or tampered with in any manner. (PTI)