Manipur ex-CM’s ‘role’ in violence: Forensic probe on audio clips ‘misdirected’, says SC

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday expressed displeasure over Central Forensic Science Laboratory’s exercise to test the audio recordings pointing to the alleged role of former Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh in the ethnic violence in the state, calling it “misdirected”.

A bench comprising Justices Sanjay Kumar and Satish Chandra Sharma said it hadn’t asked about authenticity of audio clips but directed testing of the voice samples.

“We had not asked about authenticity of the video. What we are asking for is after testing that voice with the admitted voice of the individual whether it can be identified that same persons are speaking in both?” it said. The bench went on to tell Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati: “We don’t need authenticity of the video to be established. The entire exercise seems to be misdirected. Only wishy-washy answers are being given. The CFSL is under the impression that we want to know if the video is authentic or not.”

The top court also rejected an application filed by Singh’s daughter seeking to be added as a party to the case and said it wasn’t a “family support programme”.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for petitioner Kuki Organisation for Human Rights Trust (KOHUR), sought an independent SIT investigation in the matter.

He alleged the same government, which the former chief minister belongs to, has administrative control over the CFSL laboratory. The bench, however, said: “You cannot suspect the bonafides of every organisation on the ground of administrative control. We will have to bring an organisation from abroad.”

The matter was posted for August 25 as Solicitor General Tushar Mehta was in another court.

The top court previously questioned the state government for not placing on record a fresh forensic report on the authenticity of leaked audio clips despite its directions.

On May 5, a bench headed by former CJI Sanjiv Khanna examined a forensic report on authenticity of leaked audio clips alleging role of former Manipur CM and asked the state government to file a fresh report on the probe.

It opened the sealed cover report of the (Central Forensic Science Laboratory) CFSL submitted by Mehta and asked him to seek instructions from the state officers on the investigation.

The state government has informed the bench that a forensic report on the authenticity of the leaked audio clips alleging the role of Singh in the ethnic violence was ready to be filed.