Manipur violence: Indian SC questions selective forensic probe into ex-CM Biren Singh’s audio tapes
New Delhi: The Indian Supreme Court expressed unhappiness and questioned why the entire available leaked audio clips, which allegedly implicate former Manipur chief minister N. Biren Singh in the 2023 ethnic violence, were not sent for forensic examination.
According to Kashmir Media Service, a bench comprising Justices Sanjay Kumar and Alok Aradhe, while hearing a petition related to the Manipur violence, said it was “disturbed” by an affidavit filed on November 20 by the Kuki Organization for Human Rights Trust (KOHUR), which revealed that only a few audio clips had been forwarded for forensic analysis.
KOHUR has approached the apex court seeking an investigation into the leaked audio recordings, purportedly from 2023, in which a voice resembling that of N. Biren Singh allegedly admits to orchestrating the ethnic violence. The unrest claimed over 250 lives—mostly from the Christian community—injured many others, and displaced more than 50,000 people, most of whom continue to live in relief camps across Manipur.
N. Biren Singh resigned on February 9, following which the Indian government clamped President’s Rule in the state for six months, later extending it by another six months.
Earlier, in August this year, the Supreme Court had questioned the Modi government over the delay in submitting the forensic report, despite the court’s directive issued three months earlier. The bench subsequently ordered a fresh forensic examination to determine whether the audio clips had been edited, modified, or tampered with, and whether the voice in the recordings matched the admitted voice samples of Biren Singh.
In November 2024, acting on the KOHUR petition, the Supreme Court, agreed to examine the tapes and directed the petitioner to authenticate it. KOHUR then approached a highly reputed private lab, the Truth Lab, for the authentication of the tapes, which had stated that there was a 93% similarity between the voice in the tapes and Biren Singh’s voice as heard in authentic voice samples submitted to it for examination.
The Indian SC has scheduled the next hearing in the case on January 7.
