Manipur violence: Centre says forensic report found Biren Singh audio recordings manipulated

The Central government on August 7 urged the Supreme Court to dismiss a petition seeking an investigation into audio recordings that allegedly implicate former Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh in the 2023 ethnic violence, arguing that a forensic examination found the clips had been manipulated.

Appearing before a bench of Justices Sanjay Kumar and Sanjeev Sachdeva, Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati relied on a report by the National Forensic Sciences University (NFSU), Gandhinagar, to argue that the recordings had undergone multiple alterations.

Bhati urged the court to dismiss the petition with costs, contending that even the longer audio recording later submitted by the petitioner contained several edits. Referring to information received from a Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) doctor, she told the court that the recording showed 41 alterations.

The bench said both sides should be given time to examine the latest NFSU report before making further submissions.

Representing the petitioner, the Kuki Organisation for Human Rights Trust, advocate Prashant Bhushan questioned the Centre's reliance on the NFSU findings. He referred to an earlier report by Truth Labs, which, according to him, found a "93 per cent match" between the voices in the recording.

The court directed that copies of the six-page NFSU report dated July 30, 2026, prepared by Dr Surbhi Mathur, Associate Professor at the School of Forensic Science, NFSU, Gandhinagar, be provided to both the petitioner and the Centre before adjourning the matter.

The petition is based on audio recordings that allegedly capture Singh admitting he had "fuelled insurgency and protected those who looted the arms" during the ethnic violence in Manipur in 2023.

The petitioner had initially submitted a 48-minute audio clip. In August 2025, the Supreme Court asked the NFSU to examine its authenticity and verify whether the voice belonged to Singh.

The forensic institution later concluded that the clip was an edited and truncated portion of a longer recording and said it could not conclusively establish either its authenticity or the identity of the speaker.

After the petitioner submitted the complete recording, which runs for two hours and 26 minutes, the Supreme Court in April directed the NFSU to analyse the full audio and compare it with Singh's admitted voice samples.