Fact Check: Tejas Crash – Ret Gen. KJS Dhillon blames PM Modi, vows to vote for Rahul Gandhi? No, video is AI-manipulated

An Indian Air Force Tejas fighter jet crashed during an aerial display at the Dubai Airshow on November 21, killing Wing Commander Namansh Syal, a pilot from Himachal Pradesh’s Kangra district.

Meanwhile, a video of Ret. Gen. KJS Dhillon is being circulated on social media. In the posts, he has been wrongly identified as Lt. Gen VK Singh. The clip purportedly shows Gen. Dhillon blaming Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the Tejas crash in Dubai and allegedly vowing to vote for Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the next elections.

“I never even thought of voting for Rahul Gandhi in my life. But after what happened in Dubai today, my vote will go to Rahul Gandhi. Vikram Singh was like a son to me. He wrote several letters to the Indian government saying there was an oil leak in the Tejas. But Modi ji wanted to showcase his Atmanirbhar Bharat plan linked to Adani. We will file an FIR against Modi for Vikram’s murder. They are already removing Sikhs, Muslims, Christians, and Dalits from the Indian Army. Bhindranwale was right when he said this Hindutva belongs to no one,” Gen. Dhillon could be heard saying in the video.

An X handle, The Whistler Blower (currently withheld in India), which frequently peddles AI-minipulated propaganda videos, shared it with the caption, “Staunch Modi supporter Indian Lt Gen VK Singh vows to vote for Rahul Gandhi in the next elections after Tejas crash at Dubai air show. Blames the Sikh enmity of Narendra Modi as the original reason behind the crash. Bhindranwala was always right about the fascist Hindutva mentality.” (Archive)

Fact Check

NewsMeter found the claim false, as the video has been manipulated using AI.

Source of the video

The viral video carries the logo of the news agency ANI. Taking this cue, we searched for the video using keywords on ANI’s YouTube channel and found Gen. Dhillon in an interview with journalist Naveen Kapoor, published on November 20.

During the interview, Gen. Dhillon discussed the evolving nature of terrorism in India, linking the recent blast near Delhi’s Red Fort to Pakistan’s “deep state” and suggesting the attack bore the signature of Jaish-e-Mohammed. He stated that India now treats any act of terror as an “act of war” and emphasised the need for the government’s approach to counter the terror ecosystem, including the rise of “white-collar terror” and sleeper cells, while also flagging concerns over security lapses and encrypted communication challenges.

However, nowhere in this interview does he make any of the claims attributed to him in the viral video.

Inconsistencies in the viral clip

We compared the viral and original videos and found that while the voice appears similar, there are notable discrepancies. In the original video, Gen. Dhillon speaks with a distinct anger when discussing Pakistan, which is absent in the viral clip. Also, the tonality, pacing, and pauses in his natural speech pattern do not match the audio in the viral video.

Tool Analysis

We subjected the video's audio to analysis on the AI-detection tool Deepfake-O-Meter. Four of its detectors flagged the audio as likely AI-generated, with a confidence score of 77.5, 60.4, 94.4, and 96.8 per cent, respectively.

Therefore, we conclude that a segment from Gen. KJS Dhillon’s interview with ANI has been manipulated by merging AI-generated audio.