Sonam Wangchuk’s father Sonam Wangyal had no CIA links; false claim viral

Vijay Patel, a Right-wing influencer who calls himself an ‘investigative reporter’ and frequently shares baseless conspiracy theories, has claimed that the father of Ladakhi activist Sonam Wangchuk, Sonam Wangyal, worked with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the US government and was part of a team that had lost a nuclear generator on the Nanda Devi mountain.

In late September 2025, violent protests centering around statehood demand in Leh resulted in the deaths of four people. Climate activist Sonam Wangchuk was subsequently arrested on September 26, 2025, for allegedly inciting the violence and engaging in “anti-national” activities. Since then, Right-wing social media accounts and a section of the media have used disinformation to create a narrative against Wangchuk. Alt News has debunked several such false claims. 

Vijay Patel’s claim about Wangchuk’s father being associated with the CIA comes against the backdrop of such propaganda building. 

Fact Check

We researched Vijay Patel’s claims about Sonam Wangyal and found that the two Sonam Wangyals are different individuals. Sonam Wangchuk‘s father never worked with the CIA. Furthermore, the Sonam Wangyal mentioned in this information is a mountaineer and has been awarded the National Adventure Award by the Indian government. He also worked in joint operations between India’s Intelligence Bureau and the CIA.   

Who is Sonam Wangchuk ‘s father Sonam Wangyal ?

According to reports by NDTV and Al Jazeera, Sonam Wangchuk ‘s father, Sonam Wangyal, became a minister in the Jammu and Kashmir government in 1975. According to information available on the Ladakh administration website, Sonam Wangyal’s 23rd death anniversary was observed on November 10, 2021. This confirms that he died in 1998.

Mountaineer  Sonam Wangyal

The other Sonam Wangyal is a former mountaineer who summited Mount Everest in 1965 at the age of 23. When we searched for mountaineer Sonam Wangyal, we found a 2020 interview he gave to Rediff. In it, the journalist asks him if, in October 1965, the US intelligence agency and India’s Intelligence Bureau collaborated on a secret mission to install a nuclear-powered sensing device on the summit of Nanda Devi.

In reply, he said the following:

“Four Indians were selected to go to Alaska for training on a secret mission, but we were not told any details about it. The four selected were Captain Kohli, Harish Rawat, Gurcharan Singh Bhangu and me.

All four of us had been part of the Everest expedition. The India-Pakistan War in 1965 cut short our training in Alaska and we returned early.

The following year we had to carry this device and leave it at the Nanda Devi summit.

At that time, we had no idea about what it was except that it was a heavy power unit that would provide the government information on Chinese movements.

Nanda Devi is not an easy mountain to climb and the device weighing 56 kilos was carried by porters on their back.

But before we along with our American counterparts could reach the summit, the weather turned bad and so we decided to leave the device and then come back the following year and activate it.

The next year we returned to the same place. We searched, but it could not be found.”

According to a report published on India TV website, Prime Minister Modi met the mountaineering team that summited Everest 50 years ago, including Sonam Wangyal, on May 20, 2015. Posting a photo of the meeting, Narendra Modi wrote that he met the surviving members and the families of the deceased members of India’s first successful expedition to Mount Everest.

In 2018, the then President Ram Nath Kovind presented the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award to Sonam Wangyal.

#PresidentKovind presents Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award 2017 to Shri Sonam Wangyal. As Principal, SGMI Gangtok (1976-1990), he has trained more than 4000 officers and Jawans of IB, paramilitary and the Indian Army. pic.twitter.com/s1OcsTPJb6

— President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) September 25, 2018

To sum up, false claims were made about Sonam Wangchuk’s father, Sonam Wangyal, that he was part of a team working with the CIA. In reality, Sonam Wangyal, who was involved in a joint operation between the Indian Intelligence Bureau and the CIA, was a mountaineer and a soldier in the Indian paramilitary forces. Whereas Sonam Wangchuk’s father, Sonam Wangyal, was a pioneering leader. Therefore, Vijay Patel first made false claims about Sonam Wangchuk’s father and secondly, he falsely accused mountaineer Sonam Wangyal of working with the CIA, even though this was a joint operation of the Indian government with the US intelligence agency.