The Manipur Police on Monday said that an audio clip, claiming to feature Chief Minister N Biren Singh taking credit for “how and why the conflict started”, was doctored.
The police reiterated that the clip was being circulated with the aim of inciting communal violence in the state and to “derail peace initiatives”.
The content had been widely shared on social media and in news reports by The Wire, said the police.
In a three-part series published on Wednesday, The Wire said that the 48-minute audio clip was recorded during a meeting at the chief minister’s residence in late 2023.
On the clip, a voice purported to be that of Singh is heard taking credit for “how and why the conflict started” bragging that he had defied Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s order against the use of “bombs” in the conflict and shielding individuals who snatched thousands of weapons from the state police armouries from arrest.
Singh is also Manipur’s home minister, which brings the state’s police under his command.
Manipur has been gripped by ethnic clashes between the Meitei and tribal Kuki communities since May 2023. At least 226 persons have died and more than 59,000 persons displaced since the beginning of the clashes, Singh told the state Assembly on August 2.
Also read: Manipur’s descent into civil war: How Scroll reported on a year of deadly violence
The Manipur government said that it views acts of spreading misinformation and disinformation through such allegedly doctored clips as “anti-national activities for likelihood of inciting hatred and mistrust amongst communities thereby, trying deliberately to disturb peaceful co-existence of communities to escalate the current law and order issues” in the state.
The state government made a similar statement on August 7 when the audio file first went viral online. The police’s cybercrime department said that a suo motu first information report was registered in the matter on August 7 and that investigation is underway.
According to The Wire, the recording has been submitted to the Commission of Inquiry, formed by the Union home ministry on June 4, 2023, to inquire into the causes and the spread of the violence.
Also read: ‘Everyone should know what happened to us’: Four Kuki women recount brutal assaults they survived
The police urged the public on Monday not to rely on “unfounded contents” circulating in social media and news reports and refrain from spreading “false and fabricated information”. “…anybody without exception shall be prosecuted under relevant provisions of laws of the land, if found involved in spreading such unfounded and baseless contents…” the police warned.
The police also said that the law and order in Manipur had improved over the past three to four months and there had been no large-scale confrontations.
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