Truth Labs Confirms 93% Certainty of Manipur CM Biren Singh's Leaked Audiotapes

Truth Labs Forensic Services, an affiliate of Truth Foundation, has found that the voice in the alleged audiotapes of Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh matches that of his voice samples with 93 % certainty.

The private lab was engaged to verify the authenticity of the leaked audiotapes alleged to have belonged to Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh over the ongoing ethnic conflict between Meitei and Kuki communities in the state. Truth Labs certified that there is a “high probability” that the audiotapes are the same voice of N. Biren Singh.

"From the Chi-square test, it has been found that the probability of the male speakers in the ‘Q/M’ and ‘S/M’ being the same person is 93%," says Truth Labs in its forensic analysis report.

"Based on Auditory, Spectrographic, Statistical and Likelihood analysis of the voice of male speaker marked ‘Q/M’ in the questioned recordings ‘Q2’ to ‘Q4’ with the voice of male speaker marked ‘S/M’ in the available sample recordings ‘S1’ to ‘S6’, the voice of the speaker in both questioned and standard recordings was identified to be one and the same with high probability."

In the wake of a series of explosive reports filed by The Wire, over the alleged incriminating audiotapes of Manipur CM N. Biren Singh, last year, the Kuki Organisation For Human Rights Trust (KOHUR) had approached the Supreme Court of India, seeking a court-monitored probe into the audio tapes.

The audio recordings were given to The Wire's correspondent by person/s stating that they had recorded them at official premises associated with Singh. They had stated that a copy of it had been submitted to retired Justice Ajai Lamba, chairperson of the Judicial Commission on Manipur Violence set up by the Ministry of Home Affairs to probe the violence that broke out since May 3, 2024.

The apex Court, after hearing the petition on November 8 last year, had asked the petitioner to very the authenticity of the audiotapes and submit its report to the court. The matter was heard by a three-judge bench headed by the then Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud.

Following the SC order, the petitioner’s counsel Prashant Bhushan on November 14, sought the services of Truth Lab, a credible private lab often engaged by government agencies, to verify the tape for authenticity. The case was registered at Truth Labs, Hyderabad on 15th November 2024.

Truth Labs' Frame by Frame Analysis of the audiotapes has certified that no sequential frame distortions were observed during the analysis. In the Auditory Analysis, the voice of the male speaker in the audio recordings ‘Q2’ to ‘Q4’ marked as ‘Q/M’ was considered for forensic speaker identification studies for comparison with the voice of the male speaker who spoke predominantly in the sample audio recordings ‘S1’ to ‘S6’ marked as 'S/M'. The voice of the speaker ‘Q/M’ was found to match with the voice of the speaker ‘S/M’.

"It was found to be a continuous recording predominantly containing the voice of one male person with a few interfering noises apparently caused by spatial movements of recording device, as well as background noises and voices of other speakers," says Truth Labs' report.

On Monday (February 3), the Supreme Court has sought the production of the report of the Central Forensic Science Laboratory on the examination of the audio tapes which allegedly recorded the statements of Manipur Chief Minister Biren Singh suggesting his involvement in the State's ethnic violence. The report has to be submitted in a sealed cover.

A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar passed the order in a writ petition filed by the Kuki Organization for Human Rights Trust (KOHUR) seeking an independent investigation into the audio tapes. The matter will be posted next in the week commencing on March 24, 2025.