The Karnataka Crime Investigation Department (CID) on Thursday, 19 August refuted the Telugu Desam Party’s (TDP’s) claim that a lewd video of YSR Congress MP, Gorantla Madhav, was genuine.
State CID chief Additional DG PV Sunil Kumar, addressing a press conference, said that the certificate, claimed to have been issued by Florida based Eclipse forensics was fake.
Previously, some TDP leaders claimed that the video was original, on the basis of the Eclipse Forensics certificate.
Madhav, representing Andhra Pradesh's Hindupur, had maintained that it was not authentic.
ADGP Kumar said that based on a government directive, a probe took place to find the veracity of the certificate.
He said that the report by the forensic agency was not authenticated. Kumar added that he contacted Jim Strafford from Eclipse forensics over email, and then found out that the report was not original.
The police official added:
“Any video can be examined by forensics (lab) only if the original source of the video can be determined. Jim has informed in the mail that the video provided to him was recorded using a mobile device while it was being played on another media device."State CID chief Additional DG PV Sunil Kumar
DGP Kumar said, “The video in circulation is not original and therefore forensics cannot determine its authenticity.”
Eclipse forensics’ website showed that Strafford is the owner and a forensic engineer. Kumar said that Eclipse did not receive any request to authenticate the video.
In an email to the ADG, Jim Strafford said:
“I was not asked to determine the authenticity of video being played and have not offered an opinion of it. Without examining I cannot speculate whether it is authentic or not.”
Strafford further clarified that the certificate was not provided by him.
Strafford also told Kumar that one Pothini Prasad requested “two minor changes to the report, but did not wait for any response and circulated the reports on social media.”
Kumar said stringent action would be initiated against those who circulated the fake certificate on social media.
“The video in circulation is not the original content and therefore, the forensics cannot determine its authenticity,” the ADG stated.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)