New Delhi, February 19 Climate activist Sonam Wangchuk's wife, Gitanjali J Angmo, alleged in the Supreme Court on Thursday that the four videos that formed the basis of her husband's detention were not shown to him, and only the thumbnails on a USB drive were displayed.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing in the court for Angmo, told a bench of justices Aravind Kumar and Prasanna B Varale that not providing the videos violated Wangchuk's right to effective representation before the advisory board as well as the government.
"It is now alleged by the State that the DIG came with a laptop and showed the four videos. The laptop was provided to the detainee on October 5, 2025, but those four videos were not present," Sibal said.
"Let us assume they showed it to him; that is not the requirement of the law. The requirement is to provide it to me. They have to provide the document; I don't have to ask. It is their constitutional duty to do so. We have said this repeatedly that the four videos were never provided," Sibal added.
Another lawyer assisting Sibal informed the court that the USB drive was inserted into the laptop before Wangchuk, and he only saw the thumbnails.
"The videos were not actually played. None of the thumbnails were actually clicked," the lawyer said.
Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj submitted that there is a video in which the conversation with the DIG and the detainee will show everything.
The top court said it would see the relevant video recordings, including a 40-minute video of the interaction between police officials and the detainee.
The matter is now posted for hearing on February 23.
On Monday, the apex court had questioned the Centre about the transcripts of videos submitted by it against Wangchuk and said the translations should be precise in the age of artificial intelligence.
It had told Nataraj that it wanted actual transcripts of Wangchuk's statements from the government after Sibal submitted that some of the words attributed to the activist were never said by him.
The top court was hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by Wangchuk's wife, Gitanjali Angmo, seeking a declaration that his detention under the National Security Act (NSA), 1980, is illegal.
The NSA empowers the Centre and the states to detain individuals to prevent them from acting in a manner "prejudicial to the defence of India."
The maximum detention period is 12 months, though it can be revoked earlier. Angmo said the violence in Leh on September 24 last year cannot be attributed in any manner to the actions or statements of Wangchuk.
Wangchuk himself condemned the violence through his social media handles and categorically said it would lead to the failure of Ladakh's "tapasya" and its peaceful pursuit of five years, Angmo said, adding that it was the saddest day of his life.