Fact Check: BJP shared audio clips of Supriya Sule and Nana Patole, know what came out in the fact check

Fact Check News: Around 11 pm on November 19, just a day before voting for the assembly elections in Maharashtra, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) posted four audio clips on its official account. When these clips were investigated, it was found that three out of four audio clips were AI generated. With this, BJP claimed that these are recordings of conversations between opposition Mahavikas Aghadi (MVA) leaders, Supriya Sule (NCP Sharad Pawar), Nana Patole (Congress), IPS officer Amitabh Gupta and Gaurav Mehta, an employee of an audit firm. .

This claim was made regarding the audio clip

BJP alleged that these audio recordings are ‘evidence’ of opposition leaders Supriya Sule and Nana Patole misusing Bitcoin from the 2018 cryptocurrency fraud case to raise funds for elections in the state. Apart from this, regarding the voices of the other two persons included in the audio clip, BJP claims that these are the voices of Amitabh Gupta, who is currently the Inspector General of Indo-Tibetan Border Police, and Gaurav Mehta. Gaurav is an employee of Sarathi Associates, an audit firm.

Serious allegations against Supriya Sule and Nana Patole

Former Pune police officer Ravindranath Patil alleged that Supriya Sule, Nana Patole, IPS Amitabh Gupta (then Pune Police Commissioner), audit firm employee Gaurav Mehta and IPS officer Bhagyashree Navatke were involved in the misappropriation of Bitcoin. According to news agency ANI, Patil claimed that he/she was sent voice notes of conversations between the named people. After this, BJP posted these four alleged voice notes linking X with these allegations.

Fact check of viral audio

In this fake recording, the voices of Supriya Sule and Nana Patole can be heard demanding cash in exchange for Bitcoins stored in four crypto wallets and also promising that there will be no investigation into the matter. BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra also held a press conference on Wednesday (November 20) morning and explained in detail about these AI generated voice notes. Archive links of these posts can be seen here, here, here and here.

What was found in boom fact check

Fact Check BOOM, during its investigation, found that the voice notes posted by BJP are fake. These have been created with the help of generative AI technique. We examined all four audio clips using TrueMedia.org’s deepfake detection tool, available to journalists and researchers. During this time, we found enough evidence that three out of four audio clips were AI generated. One of these voice notes was just five seconds long, leading to inconclusive results, possibly due to its short duration.

viral audio tampering

We also listened to the voice notes and compared the voices of Supriya Sule, Nana Patole and IPS Amitabh Gupta with their interviews available on YouTube. We found that none of the voices in the audio posted by BJP matched the original voices of the three.

Voice Note 1: Audit firm employee Gaurav Mehta talking to IPS Amitabh GuptaIn this voice note, Gaurav Mehta, an employee of audit firm Sarathi Associates, can be heard talking to IPS Amitabh Gupta, who was then the Pune Police Commissioner. We tested this audio clip using TruMedia’s AI deepfake detection tool and found ample evidence of manipulation. Check results here.

Voice Note 2: NCP (Sharad Pawar) leader Supriya Sule talking to Gaurav Mehta. In this voice note, Supriya Sule can be heard asking Gaurav Mehta for cash in exchange for Bitcoin without worrying about investigation. We compared Supriya’s voice with the voice note from an interview with Samdish Bhatia’s podcast, ‘Unfiltered by Samdish’ in 2023. We found that both the voices sounded different from each other. Watch this interview here, in which Supriya’s original voice can be heard. The results of TruMedia’s AI deepfake detection tool confirm that there is substantial evidence of manipulation. Check results here.

Voice Note 3: Congress leader Nana Patole talking to IPS Amitabh Gupta. In this voice note, Nana Patole is allegedly threatening IPS Amitabh Gupta to convert Bitcoin into cash. The TrueMedia.org tool found little evidence of manipulation. The result can be seen here. Since this recording is only 5 seconds long it is too short to test on a detection tool. Due to this, accurate results could not be obtained for this clip. We compared Nana Patole’s voice in the audio recording with his/her interview published on YouTube channel, JistNews on 19 November 2024. We found that the voice of the audio note does not match the original voice of Nana Patole. his/her original voice interview Here Can be seen.

Voice Note 4: Conversation between IPS Amitabh Gupta and Gaurav Mehta This is reportedly the voice note of the then Pune Police Commissioner IPS Gupta, who is talking to Gaurav Mehta. In this he/she is confirming the cash in exchange for Bitcoin demanded by Supriya Sule and Nana Patole. We found several interviews of IPS Gupta on YouTube, but the voice of none of them matches the audio recording posted by BJP. Given on 15th March 2024 Interview The original voice can be heard. TruMedia’s tool confirmed that there was substantial evidence of manipulation by AI. Result Here See.

Evidence of tampering found in investigation

Additionally, the Deepfake Analysis Unit (DAU) of the Misinformation Combat Alliance, of which Boom is a part, has developed deepfake detection tools. hive, Hiya, Truemedia, Deepfake-o-meter All viral audio clips were analyzed using. It also found that three of these audio clips were generated by AI while one showed little evidence of manipulation.

Politics heated up due to viral audio amid Maharashtra elections

Voting ended in Maharashtra on Wednesday (20 November). Now the counting of votes will take place on November 23, with which the results will be revealed. Currently, the state is led by the Mahayuti alliance, comprising Shiv Sena, BJP and NCP (Ajit Pawar faction) led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. In the opposition is the Mahavikas Aghadi, an alliance between the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT), the Congress and the NCP (Sharad Pawar faction).

conclusion

boom fact check BJP’s investigation found that BJP has posted AI generated audio clips of Supriya Sule and Nana Patole as evidence of their involvement in election fraud and taking cash in exchange for Bitcoin. This audio clip was tested using TruMedia’s AI deepfake detection tool and found that it had sufficient evidence of manipulation.

(This story was originally published boom fact checkAnd republished by NBT as part of Shakti Collective.)