A video is being shared on social media with a claim that it shows Col Santosh Babu’s conversation with the Chinese Army. Col Santosh Babu was martyred recently in the India-China border clash at the Galwan valley in Ladakh. Let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video of Col Santosh Babu’s conversation with the Chinese Army.
Fact: There are two different video clips in the posted video. While one video clip is on the internet at least since January 2020 and is related to Indo-Tibetan Border Police (Col Santosh belongs to the Indian Army), the other video is on the internet at least since July 2017. Hence the claim made is FALSE.
The posted video has a logo of ‘ABN’ on it. So, when searched if ‘ABN’ (a Telugu news channel) has posted the video, it was found that ‘ABN Telugu’ has uploaded the same video (archived) on its YouTube channel on 18 June 2020 with the same title (‘Santhosh Babu Conversation with China Soldiers’). The posted video has two different video clips. Let’s check each of them separately.
Video 1:
When the screenshots of the video were run through the Google Reverse Image Search, the same video was found to be uploaded on YouTube with the title – ‘Chinese army arguing with Indo Tibetan Border Police (I.T.B.P.) in Border of Arunachal Pradesh’ on 13 January 2020. So, it is not related to the recent incident at the Galwan valley. Also, it can be observed that ‘I.T.B.P’ (Indo-Tibetan Border Police) is written on the shoulder badge of Indian officer talking in the video. I.T.B.P guards the Indo-China border from Karakoram Pass in Ladakh to Jachep La in Arunachal Pradesh covering 3488 km. It is one of the ‘Central Armed of Police Forces’, which works under the ‘Ministry of Home Affairs’. But, Col Santosh Babu belongs to the Indian Army’s ’16 Bihar Regiment’. So, the video does not show Col Santosh Babu talking to the Chinese Army.
Video 2:
The second video clip, which begins at 1:59 in the posted video, is also an old video. The same video was found to be posted by ‘Deccan Herald’ on 07 July 2017 with the title – ‘Watch: Jawans stop Chinese soldiers from entering Indian territory Part 1’. They have mentioned that they could not verify the authenticity of the video. But, as the video is in circulation at least from July 2017, it can be concluded that it has no connection to the recent incident at the Galwan valley in which Col Santosh Babu was killed.
Also, the two video clips were previously debunked by FACTLY when they were shared with other false claims. The fact-check articles can be read here and here.
To sum it up, old video clips falsely shared as ‘Col Santhosh Babu’s conversation with China Soldiers’.
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