Manipur Violence : Supreme Court Asks Whistleblower To Give First Generation Copy Of Alleged Recording Of Biren Singh For Forensic Analysis

The Supreme Court was informed today that the whistleblower has agreed to submit the original audio clips allegedly implicating former Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh in the State's ethnic violence.

It may be recalled that a bench comprising Justice Sanjay Kumar and Justice K Vinod Chandran has passed several orders to verify the authenticity of the audio and compare it with the voice of Biren Singh.

In February last year, the Court had passed an order seeking production of the report of the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Guwahati, in a sealed cover. In May, a bench after expressing dissatisfaction with the report submitted by the Central FSL, had asked for a fresh FSL report.

In August, the Court directed the NFSL to resume the exercise after the CFSL's report indicated no clear findings. Later, in January this year, the Court directed the National Forensic Sciences University (NFSU) to examine the entire 48-minute clip and compare it with the admitted voice of Singh.

In the last order, it was pointed out that even NFSU is unable to make comparisons because the audio seems to be modified. The Court had then asked Advocate Prashant Bhushan(for petitioner Kuki Organisation for Human Rights) to explore the idea of whether the whistleblower would be willing to submit the original, unmodified audio.

Bhushan had said that this might run him to the risk of exposing his identity, but he will try. Pursuant to this, the Court was informed that he has submitted the audio, which is more than 2 hours and 26 minutes.

The Court had also asked Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati why NFSU hasn't been able to undertake a comparison of the audio submitted with Biren's audio clips submitted. Bhati submitted that the audio seems to be modified in the sense that it contains variations at different levels.

Bhati also pointed out that the admitted recordings of Biren Singh were not given by the State of Manipur as alleged by the petitioner. However, Bhushan maintained a stand that it was the State that had some audio clips of Singh from Doordarshan interviews for comparison to the audio.

The Court has now asked the State to furnish an admitted audio to be used for comparison with the audio clip concerned.

Bhati also clarified that NFSU was unnecessarily trolled for writing 'pendrive' as 'pandrive' because they had received it that way, and to maintain the authenticity, they are authorised to even change the words.

As the Court moved forward to pass an order that the original audio received may be submitted to NFSU, Bhushan informed that the audio was copied from the mobile(which was used to record the voice) to a pen drive, and then subsequent copies of the audio were made.

The Court was back to square one as only the first-generation copy should be sent for forensic examination.

Bhati received instructions that they wouldn't need the original device, but the first copy that had been copied from the mobile to the pen drive would be required as the hash value needs to be generated. "I have received instructions from the scientist; the device is not required, but they need a raw file without any alteration."

Bhushan countered that this may not be the case, but agreed to find out on which pen drive the first copy was made. He submitted that now a new copy can't be made because the whistleblower has deleted the audio from his mobile phone. However, Justice Kumar said: "No, this gets corrupted. Photographs sent from WhatsApp to WhatsApp degrade the quality. At least this recording you ought to have from the original...There is no point in giving a copy of a copy of a copy."

Bhushan responded: "They can't make another copy because from phone they copied to pen drive and then deleted because they were afraid."

The bench ultimately ordered: "We are informed that NFSU will not be able to undertake the comparison of the voice recordings in view of the technical issues involved. However, Mr Prashant Bhushan, learned counsel for the petitioner, states that the full audio clips of 2 hours, 26 minutes have been copied to the pen drive from the original device.

Let the said pen drive, first-generation copy, be furnished to the other side within one week, for forwarding to the NFSU for comparison with the admitted voice recording of the individual concerned. The State of Manipur shall furnish the admitted recordings of the person to the NFSU for the purpose of comparison. The NFSU is directed to complete the exercise as expeditiously as possible, within six weeks."

Case Details: KUKI ORGANIZATION FOR HUMAN RIGHTS TRUST Vs UNION OF INDIA|W.P.(C) No. 702/2024