Amidst the Maharashtra polls, one voice clip claimed to be of a phone call between NCP (Shaadchandra Pawar)leader Supriya Sule and one Gaurav Mehta (claimed to be an employee of audit firm Sarathi Associates) is being widely shared on social media platforms. It is being claimed that Supriya Sule is asking for cash in exchange for Bitcoins, she is also heard saying that the concerned person need not worry about inquiry since they will take care of it once they come to power. During our investigation, we found the clip made using AI tools. The viral claim is false.
Claim:
X user BJYM shared the 33-second voice clip.
Other users too are sharing the voice clip.
Investigation:
The voice notes started appearing on X a day before Maharashtra votes on 19th November after BJP alleged Supriya Sule and Congress’ Nana Patole were linked to Cryptocurrency fraud. However, Sule refuted the allegations and has filed a criminal complaint to the Election Commission of India (ECI) and Cyber Crime Department.
We then downloaded the video and extracted the viral audio from the same.
We then ran an audio analysis using Hiya embedded in the InVid advanced tools. The analysis suggested 98 per cent of voice cloning.
We also ran the audio through HIVE moderation, an AI detector.
HIVE moderation too suggested that the voice clip is 99.9 per cent AI-generated.
Lighthouse Journalism observed that similar voice clips are being circulated on X.
We also found a clarification by Supriya Sule to ANI news agency where she called all these voice clips to be fake and informed that she had already complained about the same to cyber cell.
Conclusion: A viral audio clip of NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) leader Supriya Sule asking for cash in return for Bitcoin is AI-generated. The viral claim is false.
