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Journalism of Courage
A report by the National Forensic Sciences Laboratory (NFSL) in Ahmedabad has concluded that audio clips submitted by a Kuki outfit to the Supreme Court to allege complicity of former Manipur CM N Biren Singh in the ethnic violence that gripped the state were tampered with and “not scientifically fit” for voice comparison.
The lab’s report was submitted to the Supreme Court where a bench of Justices Sanjay Kumar and Alok Aradhe directed that a copy be furnished to the petitioner. The court will hear the matter next on December 9.
Reading from the report dated October 10, 2025, Justice Kumar said: ‘…Four exhibits showed signs of modification and tampering. Therefore, they conclude that the clips are altered and do not constitute the original source recording and are not scientifically fit for forensic voice comparison.”
The judge said that “consequently, no opinion on similarity and dissimilarity of the speakers in question and the control clips can be offered”.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for petitioner Kuki Organization for Human Rights Trust, said that a report by Truth Labs, a private entity, had said that a 50-minutes sample was unedited and that there is a 93 percent chance that the voice is of the same person. The court said it would give him the Ahmedabad lab’s for a response.
Bhushan tried to defend the credentials of Truth Labs but the court said: “We don’t know because this (NFSL) is supposed to be the premier forensic lab.”
The counsel then sought to raise questions about the NFSL saying it is Government-owned. He said that “more than a year and half ago it was sent to the government and yet it remains uninvestigated by the government despite the very very damaging conversations.”
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, said, “We have just shared the conclusions in that report which say that the disputed recording has been tampered with also.” He also pointed out that the state is “now quite peaceful” and “let’s not meddle with that”.
The plea sought an independent investigation based on the tapes into Biren’s alleged role in the violence, which killed more than 200 people in Manipur since last May. The Manipur government has termed the clips as fake and said that they were released on social media in an attempt to derail peace initiatives.
