Why CFSL Report of JNU 'sedition' Row Tapes Being Genuine Means Nothing

A recent series of news reports said the Central Forensic Science Laboratory found as 'genuine' video samples sent by the special cell of Delhi Police probing the JNU 'sedition' case.

This led to a lot of chest-thumping by some of the channels who were earlier accused of showing a doctored video of JNU students union president Kanhaiya Kumar and others chanting anti-national slogans.

But this certificate of genuineness from CFSL does not change a thing. Perplexed? Read on, for the devil lies in the detail.

What did the Special Cell send for testing ?

The cell had seized half a dozen of video sources. Of which there was one Hindi news channel which was the first and the most vociferous in covering the issue.

The only media organization which was said to be present at the spot when the incident took place

These were sent to CFSL. Now, what did CFSL certify? It certified that all video files from all these six video sources were genuine and untampered.

But, and there is a big but here. CFSL says nothing about the videos which were aired on various channels. Why? Because what was aired in various channels do not fall within the purview of the special cell's investigation.

They did not send these tapes for probe. For the investigative agency what matters is what happened that evening in JNU and not in the TV studios.

What CFSL results cannot say is whether this raw footage was edited, whether another audio track was superimposed, or whether it was doctored in any other manner.

Now, what did the Delhi government investigate? The Delhi government had initiated an enquiry under the District Magistrate of New Delhi, Sanjay Kumar, who happens to be an honest, no-nonsense man.

The mandate was to find out whether the purported videos of Kanhaiya shouting 'Azadi' slogans were genuine or not.

These samples were sent for testing to a reputed private forensic laboratory, Truth Labs. Truth Labs found these videos to be doctored.

It is on the basis of this report that the Kejriwal government took three channels - one Hindi and two English channels- to court.

Thus, celebrations on part of any of these channels are either premature or an attempt to win the perception battle.