Bhushan CD 'doctored', says CFSL Chandigarh

Forensic examination of a controversial CD purportedly containing conversation of Team Anna member Shanti Bhushan, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh and Rajya Sabha MP Amar Singh by a central laboratory shows that it was "doctored", contradicting findings of two other such tests.

Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Chandigarh, has said that the recording in CD is "not original" and "post production edited version".

The CD was received by a leading daily at its office on April 13 by some unknown sender. After the CD came into circulation, Shanti Bhushan had filed a complaint with Delhi Police on April 14, alleging that it was fabricated and denied having any conversation with Mulayam and Singh.

Delhi Police got the CD examined at CFSL, Delhi and CFSL, Chandigarh besides CERT-In, a department under the ministry of communications and information technology which gave divergent opinions after analysing the CD.

The CFSL, Delhi report was received by Delhi Police on April 20 in which it said "the recorded conversation in the CD could not have been tampered with".

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On April 21, the case was transferred to the special cell and the CD, received in a sealed cover from CFSL, New Delhi, was sent to CFSL, Chandigarh for second opinion.

With two different versions on the analysis of the CD, the matter was sent to CERT-In, which in its report on May 28, said the "audio file containing the conversation was continuous with no sign of abrupt changes or editing marks."

After getting these reports and questioning of people involved the case, Delhi Police sought permission of the court to close the case filed on the complaint by Bhushan saying there was no substantive evidence to prove the offence of forgery as alleged by him.

The CFSL, Chandigarh report now made public under the RTI Act shows that the CD sent to the Laboratory by the Delhi Police carried only one audio file of one minute and 55 seconds which was created on April 15, 2011 while the CD was created on April 17.

The report which was contrary to reports of CFSL, Delhi and CERT-IN says audio recordings in the CD contain "changes in signal levels", "abrupt starts of conversation as well as contextual variations at some places."

"Same (sic) different words were found inserted at numerous places in the recording present in the CD marked C1 by electronic editing (non-linear editing) to show contextual continuity in the conversation," the CFSL report said.

In the examination "obscuration of signal and editing at co-articulation level" was found at some places in the recording which indicated" signs of proficient editing.

"Unusual voice and multi-speaker talk was found in the background of the recorded conversation," the report which was provided to an RTI activist after directions of the Central Information Commission said.

"On the basis of above observations, I came to conclusion that recording present in the compact disc (CD) is not original and is a post-production edited version," Deputy Director at CFSL Chandigarh, S K Jain who examined the CD said in his report to Special Cell of Delhi Police.

When asked about the development, son of Shanti Bhushan, Prashant said, "The Delhi Police did not even forward the other CD, the Mulayam Singh Amar Singh CD, to the Chandigarh CFSL Lab which would have even more graphically showed that all of Mulayam Singh's voice has been copied and pasted from the tapes filed before Supreme Court in the CD sent for examination."

He was referring to the tapes he filed in the Supreme Court in 2006 to demand that Amar Singh's intercepted phone conversations be made public.

"Moreover, the dishonesty of the Delhi Police is evident from the fact that they withheld the Mulayam Singh Amar Singh CD from all the labs, procured a dishonest report from the CFSL, Delhi and made it public and refused to disclose the report Chandigarh CFS," Bhushan alleged.