Fresh Violence in Manipur; Court Hears Case on Ex-CM’s Alleged Role in 2023 Unrest

From the Editor’s Desk

April 8, 2026

Photo used for presentation purposes only

The Supreme Court expressed frustration on April 6 over repeated forensic delays in authenticating audio clips that allegedly implicate former Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh in the state’s ethnic violence. Meanwhile, a bomb attack the following day in Manipur’s Bishnupur district killed two children and triggered fresh unrest.

The two victims from the Meitei community, a five-year-old boy and a six-month-old girl, were asleep with their mother in their home in the Moirang Tronglaobi area of Bishnupur when an explosive struck the house around 1 a.m. on April 7, according to media reports. Their mother sustained injuries in the blast and was admitted to a hospital in Imphal.

By morning, angry locals had set fire to two oil tankers and a truck near a petrol pump, burned tires in front of Moirang Police Station, and vandalised a paramilitary camp in Bishnupur district. At least three protesters died and four people were injured in ensuing gunfire after paramilitary personnel opened fire following the torching of a vehicle belonging to the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in the Gelmol area.

Manipur’s Chief Minister, Yumnam Khemchand, called the suspected attack “barbaric” and “cowardly” and said his government would “hunt down the perpetrators involved in the heinous crime.”

Authorities imposed a curfew in four valley districts and suspended internet and mobile data services for three days in Imphal West, Imphal East, Thoubal, Kakching and Bishnupur districts. The home department ordered the state’s second internet shutdown of 2026.

The conflict, involving Meiteis and Kuki-Zos, has killed more than 250 people, injured several, destroyed thousands of homes and displaced at least 70,000. About 6,000 weapons were looted from state armouries by extremist groups during the initial days of the violence, which began on May 3, 2023, when a long-simmering dispute over land ownership and identity between the two communities exploded into full-blown violence.

The state government said it will hand over the probe to the National Investigation Agency (NIA). The decision suggests that authorities remain uncertain, even at a prima facie level, about whether those behind the attack belong to the local community or came from outside.

However, some media houses attributed the attack to suspected Kuki-Zo militant groups, as the blast site lies close to the foothills that mark the boundary between the Imphal Valley, a Meitei-majority area, and Churachandpur district, a Kuki-Zo-majority area.

The Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF), a Kuki-Zo group, rejected the allegations as baseless, arguing that buffer zones between Kuki-Zo and Meitei areas are heavily guarded by security forces, making infiltration virtually impossible. The forum also said Gelmol, the nearest Kuki-Zo village to Tronglaobi, is abandoned and currently occupied by paramilitary personnel.

The central government established buffer zones during the initial days of the violence in 2023. The zones function as strict internal borders between Kuki-Zo and Meitei areas in the state. Kuki-Zo individuals, including senior officials and police personnel, cannot safely enter Meitei-majority areas in the Imphal Valley. Meiteis, including those in official positions, similarly avoid entering Kuki-Zo-dominated hill areas. These buffer zones, manned by security forces, continue to remain in place.

The Kuki-Zo Council also condemned both the bomb attack and the burning of petroleum trucks, noting the fuel was bound for Churachandpur residents who had no connection to the incident.

The attack came a day after Singh visited Bishnupur district to attend the foundation day celebration of the Meitei Society Churachandpur at INA Hall in Moirang, as reported by The Hills Journal.

a Supreme Court hearing on what media have been referring to as the “Manipur tapes.”

The audio recordings, brought to public attention by The Wire, claim that at least two Meitei groups, banned under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), were made to collaborate with security forces under the administration of Singh in 2023. They also suggest that the use of lethal ammunition during the initial phase of violence was supported.

In the April 6 Supreme Court hearing, a bench of Justice Sanjay Kumar and Justice K. Vinod Chandran questioned why no forensic laboratory had produced conclusive findings from the disputed audio material and refused to close proceedings, Live Law reported. The court asked Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati to explain why the National Forensic Science University (NFSU) could not complete a voice comparison, and whether Singh could travel to the NFSU campus in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, to provide a fresh sample.

The NFSU found the 48-minute clip had been tampered with, making voice identification inconclusive. Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioner Kuki Organisation for Human Rights, said the audio had been modified only to remove the voice of the person who secretly recorded it. 

The bench also noted the NFSU report repeatedly misspelled “pendrive” as “pandrive,” prompting Justice Kumar to say “national universities, perhaps, need to do a little introspection.”

A bench under former Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna had expressed dissatisfaction with a Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) report from Guwahati in May 2025 and ordered a fresh assessment.

An independent lab, Truth Lab, separately had found a 93 percent match between the clips and Singh’s voice, with a “high probability” the recordings were the same. The recordings were also submitted to retired Justice Ajai Lamba’s Judicial Commission on Manipur Violence, established by the Ministry of Home Affairs to probe the unrest that began in 2023.

President’s Rule was imposed in Manipur on February 13, 2025, following Singh’s resignation after his government lost its majority in the Assembly, and remained in force for about a year before being lifted. The third anniversary of the violence is about a month away, with little sign of any long-term resolution to the conflict, which continues to cause suffering in both communities.

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