The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed that the entire audio recording allegedly linking former Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh to the ethnic violence in the state, along with his voice samples, be sent to the National Forensic Science University for examination, Live Law reported.
A bench of Justices Sanjay Kumar and K Vinod Chandran asked the laboratory in Gandhinagar to expedite the process and submit its report in a sealed cover.
The order was passed while hearing a plea filed by the Kuki Organization for Human Rights Trust, which has sought an independent investigation into the audio clips purportedly featuring Singh’s voice.
In the recordings believed to be from 2023, 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 from arrest individuals who snatched thousands of weapons from the state police armouries.
In its order on Wednesday, the bench said that the entire 48-minute conversation, along with all admitted voice recordings and other audio material furnished by the petitioner, should be forwarded to the laboratory.
In November, the petitioner informed the court that the Manipur Police had forwarded only short and edited audio clips to the laboratory instead of the full recording.
The Kuki group had made the allegation in an affidavit responding to a report submitted by the laboratory in October, which claimed that the audio clips had been tampered with and were not scientifically fit to compare the voice.
The laboratory had told the court that it could not provide an opinion on whether the voice in the clips is that of Singh.
On Wednesday, advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the Kuki organisation, said that the matter had been listed about 10 times and that the transcript of the full 48-minute conversation, along with the audio, had been placed on record with the petition, Live Law reported.
The court then questioned the government about the reason for not sending the audio clip in its entirety, The Hindu reported.
Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati said that the authorities had received the full recording only after the last hearing in December and that the petitioner had not provided it earlier, Live Law reported.
Bhushan was quoted as having responded that the authorities could have sought the recording from the petitioner during their repeated appearances before the court.
When the bench asked Bhushan why the recording had not been provided, Live Law quoted him as having said that there had been no formal direction to do so.
The bench then issued directions for the entire clip to be sent to the forensic laboratory.
At least 260 persons have been killed and more than 59,000 persons displaced since the ethnic clashes broke out between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo-Hmar communities in May 2023. There were periodic upticks in violence in 2024 and 2025.
President’s Rule was imposed in February 2025 after Singh resigned as the chief minister amid allegations from Kuki-Zomi-Hmar groups that his response to the violence had been partisan and that he had stoked majoritarianism.
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