Palanivel Thiaga Rajan (PTR) shared a screenshot of the forensic analysis of the audio clip
Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan (PTR) on Saturday dismissed as "fabricated" an audio clip that purportedly claimed he made comments on the assets of Chief Minister MK Stalin's family members.
Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai had tweeted the purported clip recently, claiming PTR spilled some "secrets" about the assets of DMK president MK Stalin's son Udhaynidhi and son-in-law Sabareesan.
In a two-page statement, PTR said the audio clip is "malicious, fabricated" and pointed out anyone could make such audio clips with the help of technology.
PTR attached screenshots of the audio clip's forensic analysis which, according to him, proved the clip shared by the rival party leader was clearly fake.
Describing himself as a "strong proponent" of free speech", PTR said he hadn't responded to several accusations, but this time he has been forced to do so.
"So I am forced to react at this juncture because one social media post has now been re-broadcast to lamentable positions; it has been repeated and amplified by unscrupulous political players," PTR said in the statement.
"Please note that publicly available technical analysis of the alleged clip clearly shows it is not authentic," PTR added.
"With the ability to create fabricated and/or machine-generated clips using advanced technology that is easily accessible, we should not be surprised to see more audio and even video clips in the coming days and months with ever-more malicious content," he said.
Mr Annamalai, responding to PTR's tweet, said the audio sample analysis was done by the DMK and not by any independent agency and challenged the DMK leader to give the audio clip to such an agency for analysis.
He stated if the threshold of "slander" were to be crossed, "I will be forced to take action."
PTR credited Mr Stalin for whatever he has done in public life and said "no malicious attempts to divide us will ever succeed."