Guwahati: The Supreme Court on Monday (August 25) directed the National Forensic Science Laboratory (NFSL) in Gandhinagar to conduct a fresh examination of audio recordings that allegedly feature former Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh in connection with the state’s ethnic violence.
The Court took this step after observing that an earlier report from the Guwahati Forensic Science Laboratory failed to clearly confirm whether the voice on the recordings matched Singh’s.
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A bench comprising Justices P.V. Sanjay Kumar and Aravind Kumar heard the case, which stemmed from a petition filed by the Kuki Organisation for Human Rights Trust.
The petitioner had sought an independent investigation into the audio tapes, which have raised serious allegations.
The judges noted that although the Guwahati lab had compared the disputed recordings with an admitted voice sample, it had not provided a definitive conclusion.
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To address this gap, the Court instructed the NFSL to verify two key points: whether the audio had been edited or tampered with, and whether the voice in all the clips belonged to the same person.
The Court ordered authorities to send the audio clips, the voice sample, and a related questionnaire to the NFSL within one week. It also asked the lab to complete the analysis and submit a report in a sealed cover to the Court within six weeks. The Union government will bear the cost of the forensic examination.
The Court scheduled the next hearing for November 3, 2025.
This directive follows a series of developments. In February, the Court had first requested a forensic report on the recordings. In May, the court also expressed dissatisfaction with the analysis provided and demanded a new one. On August 4, the bench criticized the delay, emphasizing that forensic evaluations should not be indefinite.
During earlier hearings, Advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing the petitioner, informed the Court that Truth Labs, a private forensic institute, had already deemed the audio authentic.