Supreme Court orders voice sample test of UP DIG over ‘abusive’ audio

The Supreme Court ordered a voice sample test for a DIG accused of derogatory remarks against Muslims and quashed the prosecution of a man who questioned him.

The Supreme Court on Monday ordered a voice sample test on an Uttar Pradesh deputy inspector general (DIG) to determine if he used derogatory language against Muslims. Simultaneously, the court quashed the prosecution of a Muslim man, who was implicated in a criminal case after attempting to file a complaint against the senior officer.

The Supreme Court directed that the sample be sent for examination at the Telangana State Forensic Sciences Laboratory in Hyderabad. (ANI)

A bench of justices Ahsanuddin Amanullah and K Vinod Chandran termed the initiation of criminal proceedings against Islamuddin Ansari a patent “abuse of authority” and quashed the case in its entirety, while criticising the police for misusing the criminal process to target a citizen who had merely sought to question an officer about the authenticity of an audio clip.

Taking strong exception to the circumstances in which Ansari was implicated in a criminal case after he confronted the then superintendent of Police (now DIG), Sanjeev Tyagi, with the audio clip and sought confirmation if it contained his voice and whether the derogatory remarks were indeed spoken by him. Instead of responding to the query, the police initiated proceedings against Ansari during the Covid-19 pandemic and accused him of promoting hatred and circulating obscene material.

“Having regard to the aforesaid, we find it to be totally an abuse of their authority and also the process of the court by the police in initiating the proceedings,” said the bench, setting aside the criminal case registered in Bijnor in 2020. The FIR had alleged that Ansari circulated the clip containing derogatory comments against the Muslim community, purportedly attributed to Tyagi, and thereby incited anger and public alarm. Ansari, however, maintained that he had not circulated the clip and had only approached the officer privately to confirm its authenticity.

Calling the prosecution “wholly unjustified”, the Supreme Court observed that the real issue lay in how a citizen raising a legitimate query about a senior police officer’s conduct was instead turned into an accused. The bench ordered that the voice sample of Tyagi, who now serves as DIG, Basti Range, be taken and forensically compared with the audio clip that Ansari had confronted him with.

The court directed that the sample be sent for examination at the Telangana State Forensic Sciences Laboratory in Hyderabad, and required Tyagi to appear before the laboratory at the time and place fixed by it. The director of the laboratory has been made personally responsible for supervising the analysis to ensure that the process remains free from external influence and is undertaken only by individuals of “proven integrity”. The report is to be submitted in a sealed cover by January 31 next year.

The bench also added protective directions, cautioning that if any attempt is made by any authority to harass or exert pressure on Ansari, he may directly approach the Supreme Court in the same proceedings.

“We make it clear that if any attempt is made/action taken by any of the authorities to harass or exert any sort of pressure on the petitioner, the petitioner is at liberty to directly move an appropriate application in the present case itself,” the court said.

The case dates back to March 29, 2020, during the nationwide Covid lockdown, when the FIR was registered at Kotwali Shahar police station in Bijnor. Ansari filed a petition challenging the summoning order and the initiation of criminal proceedings, arguing that the allegations were retaliatory and an attempt to shield the officer whose conduct he had questioned.

Appearing for Ansari, advocate Aadil Singh Boparai argued that instead of addressing the authenticity of the disputed audio clip, the police had chosen to prosecute the complainant himself, weaponising criminal law to deter accountability and silence uncomfortable questions.

The bench has also issued notice to Tyagi, directing that he be present for giving his voice sample within three weeks. The matter will now be listed for further hearing on January 12, 2026.