Audio of Manipur CM blaming him for violence doctored: cops

Imphal: Following the appearance of an audio clip which is suspected to be featuring Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh saying that it was him behind the conflict there, state police said on Monday that the clip was doctored, Scroll reported.

Police are confident that the clip was circulated with the intention to incite communal violence in the state as well as to “derail peace initiatives”. They said that the content was widely shared on social media and news reports by “The Wire”.

The Wire published a three-part series Wednesday last week, and it reported that the 48-minute audio clip was recorded during a meeting at the CM’s residence in late 2023. In the clip, a voice said to be Biren Singh could be heard saying “how and why the conflict started” in Manipur. The voice is saying that he had defied Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s order against the use of bombs. The speaker says that he also shielded individuals who snatched thousands of weapons from the state police armouries from arrest.

However, it should be noted that Singh is managing the Home portfolio in the state, and thus, state police are also under his control.

It was in May last year that the ethnic clashes between the Meitei and tribal Kuki communities broke out in Manipur. The violent incidents spanning weeks killed 226 people and displaced more than 59,000 people. The state government had said that it views acts of spreading misinformation and disinformation through doctored clips as anti-national activities.

The audio file in question first appeared and went viral in early August. The Wire reported that the file has been submitted to a Commission of Inquiry formed by the Union Home Ministry on June 4, 2023, which probes the causes and spread of the violence in the state.