NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court was informed on Monday that the audio clip allegedly implicating former Manipur CM N Biren Singh in the communal violence of 2023 has been edited, and it would be difficult to give a conclusive finding on whether the clip was authentic or not.
A bench of Justices Sanjay Kumar and Vinod Chandran was hearing a plea filed by the Kuki Organisation for Human Rights Trust (KOHRT), which had submitted the audio clips recorded by a whistleblower. The petitioner, KOHRT, had moved the top court seeking a court-monitored investigation into certain alleged leaked audio clips which allegedly implicate former Manipur CM Singh for instigating the ethnic violence in the state.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioner KOHRT, had said the matter had been listed in the top court as many as ten times, and the state government counsel had appeared on each occasion.
“The petition itself contained the transcript of the full 48-minute conversation and that the audio had been supplied. The authorities were aware of the complete recording,” he submitted. KOHRT had alleged that the audiotapes, shared by an anonymous whistleblower, contained telephone conversations held by the former CM “establishing the complicity of the highest functionary and others in ethnic violence in the State of Manipur”.
In one of the hearings last year in SC, the NFSU Gandhinagar had informed that the audio purportedly relating to recordings allegedly implicating the former Manipur Chief Minister in the ethnic violence which took place in 2023 was tampered with.
“As the said audio is tampered with, so thereby, no opinion on the similarity or dissimilarity of the speakers could be offered,” said the NFSU to the top court. In November 2025, the NFSU had informed the Supreme Court that the audio clips sent to it showed signs of tampering and were not scientifically fit for voice comparison.
‘Audio tampered’
In one of the hearings last year, the NFSU Gandhinagar had informed that the recordings allegedly implicating the former Manipur Chief Minister in the ethnic violence had been tampered with.