Did Manipur Chief Minister Stoke Violence? Supreme Court Seeks Government Lab Report

The Supreme Court has sought a report from the government forensic laboratory CFSL on leaked audio tapes purportedly of Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh, who a petitioner of the Kuki tribes alleged instigated the Manipur violence.

At the beginning of the hearing today, Justice PV Sanjay Kumar asked whether he should recuse from the hearing as he attended a dinner hosted by the Manipur Chief Minister when he was elevated to the Supreme Court.

In response, the petitioner's lawyer Prashant Bhushan said Justice Kumar need not recuse himself.

"No problem, not one bit," Mr Bhushan told the two-judge bench also comprising Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna.

Mr Bhushan, who represented the petitioner, Kuki Organisation for Human Rights Trust (KOHUR), said the non-profit Truth Labs confirmed that 93 per cent of the audio tapes matched Mr Singh's voice.

Truth Labs, set up in 2007, is India's first non-government full-fledged forensic lab.

Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta said the report of Truth Labs cannot be relied on. The audio clips have been sent to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), he said.

"Truth Labs reports are far more reliable than CFSL reports," Mr Bhushan replied.

After hearing the submissions, the Supreme Court sought a report from the CFSL in a sealed cover and listed the matter for hearing again in the week beginning March 24.

"I don't know the veracity of the transcript also... When will the CFSL report come? Let it be examined. Let it not become another issue. File a report within one month," Chief Justice Khanna told the Solicitor General.

"The state is limping back now. We have to also see if this court should hear this matter or the high court should," Chief Justice Khanna said.

Mr Bhushan said the audio clips were recorded by a person during a closed-door meeting with the Manipur Chief Minister.

To this, Mr Mehta replied the investigators have approached the person who uploaded the audio clips on X.

"There is also another issue... The petitioner carries a baggage and has ideological inclinations, separatists sorts... There is a report by the three-judge committee about wanting to keep the pot boiling," the Solicitor General said, referring to a Supreme Court-appointed committee headed by former high court judge Justice Gita Mittal on the Manipur crisis, which in November 2023 flagged actions by civil society groups as destabilising.

HS Benjamin Mate

HS Benjamin Mate, the chairman of the petitioner KOHUR, is also a top leader of another body called Kuki Inpi, which endorsed the demand by Kuki leaders and militants under the suspension of operations (SoO) agreement for a separate administration carved out of Manipur. His organisation has alleged the Biren Singh government has been harassing him to force him into silence.

MHA Commission Of Inquiry

A Commission of Inquiry formed by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is looking into the purported audio tapes. The people who submitted the tapes have given sworn affidavits that the tapes were genuine, the news website The Wire reported.

The Kuki Students' Organisation (KSO) first released a part of the audio clip on August 7, 2024, and another on August 20, when The Wire reported about the matter.

Before the case reached the Supreme Court, the KSO in a statement had said it was "deeply shocked and outraged by the continued inaction of the government of India regarding the leaked audio recording of Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh."

'Bid To Derail Peace Talks'

The Manipur government called the tapes "doctored" to derail any peace process in the ethnic violence-hit state.

"... This doctored audio is a malicious attempt by certain sections to incite communal violence or to derail the process of peace that has been initiated at multiple levels," the state government said in a statement on August 7, 2024.

Manipur Congress vice president Lamtinthang Haokip was among those who posted the purported audio clips that the ruling BJP government termed as "doctored".

Ten Kuki-Zo MLAs who have been demanding a separate administration also requested the MHA Commission of Inquiry to expedite looking into the case.

"The complicity of the chief minister in the state-sponsored ethnic cleansing, which we have always maintained since day one, has now been established beyond an iota of doubt..." they said in a statement on August 22, 2024.

The Chief Minister has repeatedly said the Manipur violence began as a pushback by "narcoterrorists" to the state government's 'War on Drugs' campaign.

Illegal immigrants from neighbouring Myanmar deported from Manipur (file)

The Meitei community has alleged decades of the open-border policy with Myanmar have backfired, with illegal immigrants settling down and raising hundreds of new villages to call them ancestral land in due time. The Kuki tribes also follow the hereditary chieftainship system, under which village chiefs own massive tracts of land. Neighbouring Mizoram scrapped the chieftainship system.

Leaders of the Kuki tribes have refuted allegations the tribes have been sheltering illegal immigrants for demographic engineering. They have said powerful people in the valley want to grab their lands, and so made up the illegal immigrants story to scare people into becoming hostile.

The clashes between the valley-dominant Meitei community and over a dozen distinct tribes collectively known as Kuki, who are dominant in some hill areas of Manipur, have killed over 250 people and internally displaced nearly 50,000. There are many villages of the Kuki tribes in the hills surrounding the valley.

The general category Meiteis want to be included under the Scheduled Tribes category, while the Kukis who share ethnic ties with people in neighbouring Myanmar's Chin State and Mizoram want a separate administration carved out of Manipur, citing discrimination and unequal share of resources and power with the Meiteis.