Manipur ethnic violence audio recordings manipulated, Centre tells Supreme Court

New Delhi: The central government on Friday told the Supreme Court that audio recordings allegedly linking former Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh to the ethnic violence were clearly manipulated and contained "multiple alterations".

A submission to this effect was made by the counsel for the Centre before a bench of justices Sanjay Kumar and Sanjeev Sachdeva. The counsel placed a report on the authenticity of the audio clips on record by the National Forensic Sciences University (NFSU) at Gandhinagar, Gujarat.

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The counsel demanded that the petition be dismissed with the costs. The counsel added that the extended audio clips recently provided by the petitioner had 41 alterations. "This is clearly manipulated," the counsel added.

The bench observed that since the NFSU's report has now been submitted, neither side could be taken by surprise and both would have an opportunity to address its contents. Appearing on behalf of the petitioner, advocate Prashant Bhushan relied on an earlier report by Truth Labs, submitting that it had found a "93% match" between the voices in the recordings.

Before adjourning the case for resumed hearing, the bench ordered that a copy of NFSU's six-page report on the audio clip be supplied to both the petitioner and the Centre's counsel.

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The development took place during the hearing of a plea filed by the Kuki Organisation for Human Rights, which had submitted that the audio clips were recorded by a whistleblower.

Last February, SC sought a report from the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Guwahati, in a sealed cover. In May last year, the top court asked for a fresh FSL report after expressing dissatisfaction with the report submitted by CFSL.