VIJAYAWADA: Adding a twist to the controversy over a sleaze video, purportedly of YSRC MP Gorantla Madhav in a lewd interaction with an unidentified woman, the State Crime Investigation Department (CID) on Thursday refuted TDP’s claim that it was genuine.
Addressing the media here, CID chief Additional Director General of Police PV Sunil Kumar said a certificate, claimed to have been issued by a Florida, US-based forensic lab, was fake. A few TDP leaders earlier claimed that the video was original, based on the certificate by Eclipse Forensics. Madhav, representing Hindupur, had asserted that it was “morphed.”
ADGP Kumar said a probe was carried out to find the veracity of the certificate based on a government directive. The officer said the report by the private forensic agency was not authenticated, not valued and not admissible in a court of law.
The CID chief added that he contacted Jim Stafford of Eclipse Forensics over email, and came to know that the final report was manipulated. The firm’s website described Stafford as its owner and forensic engineer. Eclipse also revealed that it had not received any request to analyse and check the authenticity of the video, the officer added.
“Any video can be examined by forensics (lab) only if the original source of the video can be determined. Jim has informed in the mail that the video provided to him was recorded using a mobile device while it was being played on another media device. The video in circulation is not original and therefore forensics cannot determine its authenticity. The main video is suspected to be morphed whereas the video shot by the third person is genuine. Jim told me the same,” Kumar said.
He further read out the email conversation with Stafford where the expert reportedly told the officer that he had not been asked to check the veracity of the video and did not offer an opinion. “Without examining the original video, I cannot speculate if it is authentic or not,” Stafford reportedly told Kumar. Kumar said stringent action would be initiated against those who circulated the fake certificate on social media.
‘Eclipse Forensics did not provide certificate’
In an email to the CID chief, Jim Stafford said, “I was not asked to determine the authenticity of the video and have not offered an opinion.” He told Kumar that one Pothini Prasad had requested two minor changes to the report, but did not wait for any response and circulated the reports on social media.
TDP seeks time to make report public
VIJAYAWADA: Countering the State CID chief PV Sunil Kumar’s assertion that a US-based forensic firm has clarified that it had not certified the nude video of Hindupur MP as original, the TDP on Thursday said it was in possession of the overseas lab report that said the clip was “unedited and authentic.”
“We will soon put the actual report of Jim Stafford in public domain,” TDP spokesperson Kommareddy Pattabhiram said, adding that his party has no need to make false claims. “It is 100 per cent fact that Jim Stafford has examined the dirty video, studied it in detail and submitted a report to the TDP,” he asserted soon after Kumar told the media that Stafford had denied certifying the authenticity of the video.
Pattabhiram also claimed to have records of payment made to Stafford “for examining and studying the video,” and evidence to prove that the clip was sent to Stafford’s Eclipse Forensics.Terming the CID chief’s claim that the certificate said to have been issued by Stafford was fake, the TDP spokesman sought to know why YSRC was still supporting the MP, Gorantla Madhav.
“Sunil Kumar should stop making such false claims and should do justice to the woman in the video,” Pattabhiram demanded, and added that the video be send to the Central Forensic Lab.He also sought to know why no action has been initiated against the MP despite a directive by the National Commission for Women.
He added that it was shameful to say that cases would be booked against TDP leaders for bringing the facts to light. “Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has the history of even forging the report of IIT, Madras,’’ he said, adding that Jagan Mohan Reddy had the history of forging and producing fake documents.