Ladakh DGP Admitted Sonam Wangchuk Arrested Without Proof? No, Clip Is Edited!

AI-detection tools confirmed that the video had been manipulated using artificial intelligence (AI).

Fact-Check: This video is altered using AI and is not real.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint) 

A video showing a press conference by Ladakh's Director General of Police (DGP) SD Singh Jamwal has gone viral with claim that it shows him admitting that Climate activist Sonam Wangchuk was arrested without evidence.

What did he say?: "We know that the people of Ladakh were not given their rights. We did not get any evidence against Sonam Wangchuk. And all of this happened because of the Indian Defence Ministry, which we apologise to the people of Kashmir."

Some context: This claim comes after violent demonstrations broke out in Leh, calling for statehood for Ladakh and Sixth Schedule recognition, resulted in four fatalities and more than 60 injuries.

• Later, Wangchuk was arrested under the National Security Act on 26 September and moved to Jodhpur jail, as the Union government charged him with provoking violence through inflammatory remarks.

An archive of the post can be found here. 

(Source: X/Screenshot) 

(Archives of similar claims can be found here and here.)

Is the claim true?: No, the claim is false as this video has been altered using artificial intelligence (AI) tools.

• In the original clip, the police officer did not mention anything about the lack of evidence against Wangchuk.

What we found: The viral clip featured the logo of The New Indian Express.

• This led us to conduct a keyword search and found the press conference of the Ladakh DGP uploaded on the news outlet's YouTube channel on 27 September.

• It was titled, "Ladakh DGP explains reason for Wangchuk's arrest, defends police firing at protestors"

• In the nine-minute video, Jamwal mentioned that Wangchuk was arrested under the NSA for supposedly provoking violence and disrupting discussions between local authorities and the Central Government about Sixth Schedule status or statehood for Ladakh.

• He said that Wangchuk had a dubious agenda, pointing to his mentions of incidents like breaches of foreign funding laws under Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010, and ties to Pakistan.

• There was no mention of lack of evidence against Wangchuk in the entire press conference.

Discrepancies in the video: We slowed down the viral clip and noticed that the lip movement looked strange, indicating that the video could be altered.

AI-detection tools: Team WebQoof reached out to the Trusted Information Alliance's (TIA) Deepfakes Analysis Unit (DAU) and found the following.

• Hiya AI's audio intelligence tool found that the audio in the viral clip seemed to be manipulated using AI.

Here are the results by Hiya AI.

(Source: DAU/Screenshot) 

• Hive AI deepfake detector also found several markers of AI manipulation in the viral video.

Here are the results by Hive AI. 

(Source: DAU/Screenshot) 

• DAU also ran the audio track through software developed by Aurigin AI, a Swiss deep-tech company with an advanced audio deepfake detection engine, which identified that parts of the audio track were generated using AI.

Here are the results by Aurigin AI. 

(Source: DAU/Screenshot)

Conclusion: An AI-generated video of Ladakh DGP Jamwal has gone viral to falsely claim that it shows him apologising and stating that Wangchuk was arrested without evidence.

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