Ladakh activist Sonam Wangchuk cannot be seen in the videos relied upon by the authorities as grounds to detain him under the National Security Act, Bar and Bench quoted lawyer Kapil Sibal as having told the Supreme Court on Monday.

The submission was made before a bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and Prasanna Varale, which is hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by Wangchuk’s wife Gitanjali Angmo. She has argued that her husband’s detention is illegal and violates his fundamental rights.

Wangchuk was arrested in Leh on September 26, two days after four persons were killed in police firing during protests seeking statehood for Ladakh and its inclusion in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. He was later taken to a jail in Rajasthan’s Jodhpur.

The bench on Monday said that it will not delay hearing the matter as it was a habeas corpus petition involving personal liberty, despite Solicitor General Tushar Mehta not being available because of personal reasons.

Sibal, representing Angmo, argued that four videos relied upon by the authorities for detaining Wangchuk had not been supplied, making it impossible for the activist to effectively contest the matter.

Sibal said that there was a time gap between the events that had been relied upon by the authorities and the detention order against Wangchuk, Bar and Bench reported.

He said that several documents that had been referred to were from events beginning in March 2024 but the detention order was passed on September 26, 2025.

The lawyer was quoted as having said that according to the detention order, the real trigger were the events of September 10, 2025, September 11, 2025, and September 24, 2025. But the videos relating to those dates had not been supplied to the activist.

The authorities had instead relied on older videos such as one from June 8, 2025, or May 25, 2025, where it was alleged that Wangchuk had incited people to engage in strikes and non-cooperation movements, Bar and Bench quoted Sibal as saying.

If a video from June 8, 2025, had been the basis of the detention, then Wangchuk should have been taken into custody on June 9, 2025, Sibal said.

The authorities had ignored Wangchuk’s speech in which he spoke about non-violence, Bar and Bench quoted Sibal as saying.

The videos of September 24 had been recorded after the violence and were being used against the activist, he alleged, adding that Wangchuk was not present in those videos.

The hearing will continue on Tuesday.

On September 24, police firing and violence broke out in Leh. Demonstrators clashed with and threw stones at the police, and set fire to the Bharatiya Janata Party office and a police vehicle.

The Union government has claimed that the violence was incited by Wangchuk’s “provocative statements”.

In October, Angmo filed the petition before the Supreme Court challenging his detention. She has contended that the order relied on “stale, irrelevant and extraneous” first information reports, many of which did not name Wangchuk.

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