Fact Check: Viral Audio of Supriya Sule Linked to Bitcoin Election Scheme Proven to Be AI-Generated

New Delhi (Vishvas News). Voting for the Maharashtra Assembly Elections was held on November 20 2024, and the results will be announced on November 23, 2024. Amidst all this, an alleged audio clip of Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar faction) leader Supriya Sule went viral on social media. In the clip, she can be heard speaking to a person named ‘Gaurav,’ mentioning that money is needed for the elections and that the funds stored in Bitcoin (wallet) should be redeemed or converted into cash.

Vishvas News, in its investigation, found that the audio clip going viral in the name of Supriya Sule is a deepfake, with significant manipulation evident, confirming that it was AI-generated. Supriya Sule has also labeled this audio clip as fake and a “ploy” to mislead voters during the elections. She has filed a complaint with the Election Commission and the Cyber Crime Department.

What Is Viral ?

X User Reema Parashar ( Archive link ) shared this audio clip. An X (formerly Twitter) user, “Reema Parashar,” shared the audio clip (archive link) and wrote, “Tonight in Maharashtra feels like the night of the apocalypse… The voice does sound like Supriya Sule. This matter is very serious.”

Investigation

We started the investigation with a social media search. We found an X post made from Supriya Sule’s official X handle on November 19 2024 at 10 pm, in which she called the viral audio clip fake and informed about filing a complaint against it with the Election Commission and the Cyber Department.

Since the denial does not confirm that the viral video is synthetic or AI created, we checked it using available tools to check AI created multimedia. True Media’s analysis shows extensive manipulation in the audio clips (all three), which confirms that they are AI created.

True Media’s detailed analysis report can be checked here. For analysis using other tools, we approached our partner DAU (an MCA initiative). They shared with us the analysis of multiple tools, which confirms that the audio clip of Supriya Sule is AI created.

Analysis using DeepFake-o-meter and Hiya tools also confirms that the audio clip with Supriya Sule’s voice is AI created.

A total of four audio clips have been shared from the X handle named “PallaviCT”, which includes three other audio clips apart from Supriya Sule, out of which two clips are of the conversation between Gaurav Mehta and Amitabh Gupta, while one clip is between Nana Patole and Amitabh Gupta.

We also checked the audio clips of the alleged conversation between Nana Patole (Maharashtra Congress president) and Police Commissioner Amitabh Gupta using True Media tools. True Media’s analysis shows the possibility of extensive manipulation in the audio clip, which confirms that it is AI created. The analysis report can be seen here.

DAU shared with us the analysis of Hive Audio Detector and Hiya tools, which show that the audio is less likely to be AI created.

The third and fourth audio files are the audio files of the alleged conversation between Gaurav Mehta and Amitabh Gupta. To investigate this audio, we took the help of True Media Tool. The analysis showed the possibility of extensive manipulation in both these audio clips, which confirms that it is AI created. The detailed analysis report of both audios can be seen here and here.

DAU shared with us the analysis of other tools including Hiya, which shows the possibility of this audio being AI-generated. However, the analysis of Hive Detector does not show the possibility of it being AI created.

The issue gained momentum after former IPS officer Ravindranath Patil shared these audio clips accusing NCP-SP leader Supriya Sule and Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole of crypto currency manipulation in the 2018 crypto currency fraud case.

News agency IANS has shared these audio clips from its official X handle. However, the agency has not claimed the authenticity of this audio clip. After this audio clip surfaced, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) held a press conference and made serious allegations against the MVA i.e. Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance.

BJP also shared this audio clip (archive link) from its official X handle. Apart from this, many other BJP leaders have shared this audio clip from their official X handles.

Supriya Sule denied the allegations made by BJP in the press conference and later filed a complaint in the matter.

According to the Hindustan Times report, Amitabh Gupta is currently the Inspector General of the Indo Tibet Border Police (ITBP). Earlier, he has also served as the Deputy Commissioner of Mumbai and Principal Secretary (Law and Order) in the state government. After this he was made the Police Commissioner of Pune. After the formation of the Shiv Sena BJP government in 2022, Gupta was made Additional DGP (Law and Order) and later ADGP (Prisons). In July 2024, he was transferred as ADGP (Special Operations) and later he was sent to ITBP.