A video featuring Deputy Chief of Army Staff (DCAS) Lieutenant General Rahul R Singh “confessing” to India reportedly losing the S-400 air defence systems amid the tensions with Pakistan in May has gone viral on social media platforms.
What did he say?:
A few lessons that I thought I must flag as far as Operation Sindoor is concerned. Firstly, one border, two adversaries. So we saw Pakistan on one side, but the adversaries were two and if I would say, actually four or three, actually. We are currently in negotiations with Russia to get two S-400 systems by the end of August, after we lost to Chinese missiles on 10 May. But rest assured, our air defence will be fully operational soon. So Pakistan was the front face. We had China providing all possible support, and it's no surprise because if you were to look at statistics, in the last five years, 81% of the military hardware that Pakistan is getting is all Chinese, 81% of that. So it's no surprise. And China, of course, the good old dictum, killed by a borrowed knife, 36 stratagems that China talks about, killed by a borrowed knife. So he would rather use the neighbour to cause pain than get involved in the mud-slinging match on the northern border. So that is what he's seen. And another thing that China perhaps has seen is that it's able to test its weapons against, say, various other weapon systems that are there. It's like a live lab, which is available to him. So it's a good thing, that is what is something we have to be very, very cognisant about.
What we found: At first, we ran a relevant keyword search using relevant keywords but, it did not produce any reliable reports regarding the supposed statement made by the DCAS.
We subsequently divided the video into several screenshots and performed a Google reverse image search on them which directed us to a video report from Hindustan Times, dated 4 July.
It featured Singh’s speech at an event hosted by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) – the logo also appears in the background of the viral video.
We, then, identified the portions of the viral clip in this YouTube video. Around 16:08 mark, Singh speaks about the lessons learnt from Operation Sindoor.
He mentioned that China and Turkey supported Pakistan with arms and weapons during the conflict between the two countries.
We went through the entire speech but did not find Singh stating, "We are currently in negotiations with Russia to get two S-400 systems by the end of August, after we lost to Chinese missiles on 10 May," as in the viral video.
We, then, found the press release from the FICCI event which also did not note the remarks on the S-400 systems allegedly made by Singh.
News reports by the Economic Times and the Business Standard from 4 July also noted Singh's speech but had no mention of India losing the S-400 systems.
This raised a concern that the viral clip could be manipulated.
India has denied damage to S-400 before: Colonel Sofiya Qureshi had earlier refuted Pakistan's claim that its JF 17 had damaged the S400 and BrahMos missile base when the ceasefire was declared on 10 May.
Even the Press Information Bureau (PIB)'s fact-check unit denied that the air defence system was destroyed by Pakistan.
Additionally, it also debunked the viral video in July and noted that no such statement had been made by Singh.
Comparing original footage with viral video: We compared the two videos and found some differences.
In the viral clip, the name and other military badges looked distorted or flipped. Along with this, the microphone (seen the original clip) was missing in the viral video.
Analysis by Deepfakes Analysis Unit (DAU): We went through DAU's report, which noted that when the two clips were compared, a notable resemblance in voice, accent, and diction was present.
Further, there exists a 14-second audio about the S-400, which featured an echo and an odd noise that somewhat mimicked human breathing. However, it was NOT present in the original video.
Upon comparing the manipulated video to the visuals of the original video, it noted that the general's body language and gestures differ significantly.
Additionally, it was observed that the manipulated video lacked any noticeable jump cuts or transitions, appearing quite smooth.
DAU ran the video on AI-detection tools such as Hive AI, Hiya and ConTrails AI. All three found that the video was manipulated.
Conclusion: A manipulated video of DCAS Singh has gone viral to falsely claim that India lost the S-400 air defence system to 'Chinese missiles,' on 10 May, during Operation Sindoor.
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