Biren Singh may face legal trouble over ‘leaked tapes’
In the eye of the storm over continuing ethnic violence in the state, Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh is facing possible legal troubles after the Supreme Court took note of a sensational claim by a Kuki outfit, based on alleged leaked tapes that he was instrumental in organising violence in the state.
The Supreme Court had on November 8, asked advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing the Kuki Organisation for Human Trust, to produce audio tapes to substantiate its allegations against the CM.
Bhushan had told a Bench, led by CJI DY Chandrachud (since retired), that his client was in possession of audio tapes shared by a whistle-blower of telephone conversations of Singh that established “complicity of the highest functionary and others in ethnic violence in Manipur”.
The petition, which demanded a court-monitored investigation by the Special Investigation Team into the leaked audio clips, was likely to come up for hearing on Monday. Despite repeated requests made by Attorney General R Venkataramani and Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta not to entertain the petition, the top court ordered the tapes to be produced in a sealed cover after Bhushan said revealing the whistle-blower’s name would put his life in danger.
