Voices in ‘pay-off clip’ belong to Yeddyurappa, Ananth Kumar: Forensic report

In the audio clip the two BJP leaders were purportedly heard discussing payments made to the party’s central leadership.

A forensic investigation has found the voice samples in an audio clip where alleged payments made to the BJP’s central leadership were being discussed matched with that of the party’s two senior leaders BS Yeddyurappa and Ananth Kumar.

Senior BJP leaders B S Yeddyurappa and Ananth Kumar with party national president Amit Shah at a rally in Bengaluru . (PTI File Photo)

In a report submitted to the Karnataka police’s cyber crime branch on October 4, the Bengaluru-based forensic science lab said: “Similarities were observed in fundamental frequency measurement of vowels in words selected from questioned and sample recordings.”

The Congress released the audio CD in February after BJP’s Karnataka unit chief Yeddyurappa had alleged that to stay in power state’s Congress chief minister Siddarmaiah paid money to the party high command.

The CD purportedly recorded a private conversation between the former chief minister and Union minister Kumar where they were discussing payments made to central leaders of political parties.

They were mentioning how the allegation of Siddarmaiah paying Rs 1,000 crore to the Congress central leadership would dent the party’s image. At that point, Kumar was allegedly heard saying that even the BJP leaders had made similar payments to the central leadership of the party.

In May, a city court had ordered the two leaders to submit the voice samples for testing.

After the FSL’s finding, the case is now likely to be transferred to the Anti-Corruption Bureau as the matter pertains to alleged corruption.

“We have investigated the CD, now the charges of corruption have to be investigated,” a senior police officer said on the condition of anonymity as he is not authorised to speak to the media.

Yeddyurappa and Kumar could not be contacted for their comment on the findings of the forensic report.