Did Supriya Sule Really Ask To Cash Out Bitcoins Ahead Of Maharashtra Polls? Evidence Suggests...

On November 19, the eve of Maharashtra’s Assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party released several audio clips on their official X account, claiming that they were evidence of Nationalist Congress Party leader Supriya Sule and Maharashtra Congress President Nana Patole misusing bitcoins from a 2018 cryptocurrency fraud to influence the polls. The Misinformation Combat Alliance's Deepfakes Analysis Unit, which Logically Facts is a part of, also analyzed the audio clip using deepfake detection tools Hive Audio Detector, Hiya AI Voice Detection, True Media, and Deepfake-o-meter. Purported audio of Patole and Gupta In this clip, which the BJP claimed showed Congress Maharashtra President Nana Patole “pressurizing Police Commissioner Amitabh Gupta for money,” a male voice can be heard saying, “Amitabh, what happened to the money I had asked for yesterday?” Screenshot of the audio clip posted from the official X account of the BJP. In one, a male voice, seemingly belonging to Mehta, can be heard addressing someone as “sir” and stating, “There is no need to worry about bitcoin transactions… if any investigation occurs… trust me, no one can trace it back to us.” Screenshot of the audio clip posted from the official X account of the BJP. DAU analyzed the audio clips; TrueMedia indicated that there was substantial evidence of manipulation in the clip, and Hiya AI Voice Detection also noted that the audio seemed AI-generated, adding that there is a four percent match with live human markers.