Three days after Sonam Wangchuk's detention in September 2025, a video appeared to show Ladakh's police chief admitting the arrest was ordered by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh "without any evidence". It is false: the visuals are from a real press conference, but the voice is an AI-generated overlay, and the DGP said nothing of the kind.
Claim: Ladakh DGP S.D. Singh Jamwal admitted that he arrested Wangchuk without evidence on the Defence Minister's directions.
Said by: A viral video, posted on X by @shalini_sh1 on 29 September 2025.
What the record shows: The original press conference on 27 September contains no such admission, the audio does not match, and a detection tool rated the voice "highly likely to be a deepfake". BOOM
Where the claim came from
Wangchuk was detained under the National Security Act on 26 September 2025, two days after violence in Leh, and moved to Jodhpur jail. Tribune On 27 September DGP Jamwal held a press conference defending the action.
On 29 September the X user @shalini_sh1 posted a 13-second clip of that press conference with the caption: "#BreakingNews: ADGP Ladakh Dr S D Singh admits that he arrested Sonam Wangchuk on the directions of the Indian Defence minister". BOOM did not report its reach. BOOM
What the evidence shows
Documented BOOM traced the visuals to a nine-minute New Indian Express YouTube video of the 27 September press conference, whose logo is visible in the clip. In the original, Jamwal does not blame the Defence Minister, and "the audio does not match the voice heard in the viral video." BOOM
BOOM ran the audio through the Hiya Deepfake Voice Detector, which gave it an authenticity score of 20 out of 100, "highly likely to be a deepfake". It published on 30 September 2025 and rated the claim false. BOOM
Claim · DGP Jamwal What the DGP actually said was very different. He called Wangchuk the key figure behind the violence, said police had "recently arrested a Pakistan intelligence operative who was in touch with him", said Wangchuk had been "provoking people over a period of time", and said his foreign funding was under investigation. Tribune Those claims are themselves disputed and are covered in our separate fact check on the Pakistan-link claim.
Context
When the Centre revoked Wangchuk's detention on 14 March 2026, after about 170 days, it cited time already served and the need for dialogue. It did not mention the Defence Ministry. Newslaundry Fakes in this dispute ran in both directions. See our Ladakh protests page for the full record.
Questions people ask
Did Rajnath Singh order Sonam Wangchuk's arrest?
No evidence shows that. The video claiming the DGP said so used an AI-generated voice-over, according to BOOM.
What did the Ladakh DGP actually say about Wangchuk?
On 27 September 2025 he blamed Wangchuk for the violence and alleged contact with an arrested Pakistani operative. He did not mention the Defence Minister.
How was the DGP video shown to be fake?
BOOM matched it to the New Indian Express recording of the press conference and ran the audio through the Hiya deepfake detector, which scored it 20 out of 100.
Sources
- BOOM: Viral Ladakh DGP video uses AI voice-over, 30 Sept 2025
- Tribune: Ladakh cops probe Wangchuk's Pak links, 28 Sept 2025
- Newslaundry: Centre revokes Wangchuk's NSA detention, 14 Mar 2026
