Narada tapes sent to CFSL Chandigarh after Hyderabad lab fails

The Calcutta High Court today send the Narada sting tapes to Chandigarh CFSL after its counterpart in Hyderabad expressed its inability to analyse the genuineness of the recordings purportedly showing people resembling senior TMC leaders taking money.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice A Banerjee noted that Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), Hyderabad where the Narada tapes were sent along with devices used, had failed to retrieve the recordings that were allegedly in the hard disc of a laptop used for the purpose.
Mathew Samuel, editor of Narada News, had claimed that the alleged sting operation was recorded using an iPhone 6, transferred to a laptop and then to a pendrive, all of which had been sent by the high court to CFSL, Hyderabad for examination of the genuineness of the recordings.

A report by CFSL, Hyderabad in this regard was submitted before the court in a sealed cover.
After going through the report, the Chief Justice said that according to the Hyderabad laboratory, it does not have the facility to analyse the exhibits in isolation.
The bench said that it had requested the court to send the devices and the video footage to CFSL, Hyderabad for determination of authenticity.

Accordingly, the court directed the three-member special committee (formed by the bench and headed by the registrar administration of the high court) to hand over the devices and a photocopy of the Hyderabad facility's report to CFSL, Chandigarh within 10 days.

The bench asked CFSL, Chandigarh to submit its report on the authenticity of the video footage within a month thereafter.
(Reopens LGC1)
The division bench had on April 29 ordered the director of CFSL, Hyderabad to make preliminary inquiry to find out whether the devices used in the 'sting' and the recordings were tampered, engineered, doctored or genuine.
It had directed CFSL to complete the analysis within four weeks of being given the recordings and devices - an iPhone, a laptop and a pen drive.
Acting on a petition seeking to find out the genuinenes of the tapes and an inquiry into the matter, the court had observed that as a preliminary step it has to first ascertain whether the devices are tampered, engineered, doctored or genuine.

The recordings, which were released by Narada News a few days after the election to the West Bengal Assembly was announced, purportedly showed Trinamool Congress MPs and state ministers taking money in exchange for services for a fictitious company.