Supreme Court Asks UP DIG To Go Before Hyderabad Forensic Lab For Voice Comparison With Hate Speech Clip

The Supreme Court recently directed the Telangana Forensic Sciences Laboratory to submit before it in a sealed cover the report on the forensic analysis of the voice sample and the alleged audio clip of an Uttar Pradesh Police officer who is accused of making anti-Muslim remarks.The Court directed Uttar Pradesh DIG Sanjeev Tyagi (earlier Superintendent of Police, Bijnor) to be present before the Director, TGFSL, Hyderabad, on 09.03.2026 at 11.00 a.m to give his voice sample.The Court also allowed petitioner Islamuddin Ansari, whose phone contained the alleged audio clip of Sanjeev Tyagi with the problematic remarks, to be present at the TGFSL on the same day to help the forensic officials in locating the audio clip.After the examination, the TGFSL has to submit a report in a sealed cover, along with the transcript of the clip. The Court also asked the TGFSL to ascertain if anything appeared to have been deleted from the phone of the petitioner, which contained the said audio clip."As apprehension has been raised with regard to any deletion from the phone concerned, we leave it to the Director, TGFSL to go into the said aspect and give a report as to whether anything appears to have been deleted from the phone of the petitioner, which was seized by the Police after its seizure, the date being communicated by the petitioner herein to the Director."Insofar as the Court received an application from the FSL, stipulating a need for a "letter of advice" alongwith transcript of the audio clip to facilitate the forensic examination, the Court said that no letter of advice was required as the examination was being conducted pursuant to the Court's order.A bench of Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah and Justice K Vinod Chandran was dealing with an application filed in the quashing petition of Islamuddin Ansari, who was booked in a criminal case for spreading false rumors regarding the audio clip.On December 8, 2025, the Court quashed the criminal proceedings against Ansari, noting that the FIR appeared to have been lodged after he proposed to initiate legal action over the audio clip allegedly featuring objectionable remarks by Tyagi, who was serving as SP, Bijnor, at the relevant time. It further directed Tyagi to give his voice sample to the State FSL Laboratory, Telangana, along with the alleged audio clip for verification.The matter was then taken up on December 12 on an interlocutory application seeking modification of the Court's earlier order requiring Tyagi to submit his voice sample. The Court was informed that the mobile phone on which the audio was recorded was already in police custody. In view of this, the Court directed the SP, Bijnor, to ensure the safe delivery of the seized device to the Director of the FSL, Hyderabad.BackgroundThe case dates back to March 2020 during the COVID 19 pandemic. According to the petitioner, he had forwarded the audio clip to the then SP, Bijnor, seeking confirmation as to whether the voice in the clip was his.Subsequently, an FIR was registered against the petitioner under Section 505 of the IPC and Section 67 of the IT Act, alleging that he had spread rumors with the intent to incite communal enmity.A chargesheet was filed and cognizance taken by the Chief Judicial Magistrate in 2021. After the Allahabad High Court declined to quash the proceedings, Ansari approached the Supreme Court.Appearance: AoR Amarjeet Singh, Advocates Aadil Singh Boparai, Prakruthi Jain, and Chirag Dahiya (for petitioner); ASG K M Natraj, Sr AAG Sharan Dev Singh Thakur, AoR Sudeep Kumar, Advocates Abhishek Saket, Indira Bhaker, Manisha, and Rupali (for State of UP); Senior Advocate Rahul Kaushik, AoR Bhuvneshwari Pathak, Advocates Naman Kamboj and Shivam Parashar (for respondent No.2); AoR Devina Sehgal and Advocate Srikanth Varma Mudunuru (for State of Telangana)Case Title: Islamuddin Ansari v. State of Uttar Pradesh, SLP (Crl) No. 14997/2025Click here to read the order

Supreme Court Asks UP DIG To Go Before Hyderabad Forensic Lab For Voice Comparison With Hate Speech Clip

Debby Jain

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