The Supreme Court expressed its dissatisfaction with a second forensic laboratory report on an audio clip allegedly pointing to former Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh's role in the instigation of communal violence in the state.
A bench of justices Sanjay Kumar and K Vinod Chandran said the experts were not able to give a clear answer whether the voice in the clip matches with Singh's voice already available.
The court was hearing a petition filed by the Kuki Organisation for Human Rights Trust seeking a court-monitored SIT probe into an audio tape, claiming that Biren Singh is purportedly heard in the tape saying that the violence between Meitei and Kuki communities in Manipur was instigated at his insistence.
The violence, which lasted till February this year, claimed more than 250 lives and displaced tens of thousands in the northeastern state.
The NFSU report said that the audio clip was 'edited', 'modified' and the data did not reveal the source, although no deep fake or AI-enabled editing was observed.
The bench noted that NFSU found even the additional clip provided from Doordarshan to be edited and tampered and consequently, a view on voice matching was not possible.
