At this point, I think we can piece together a fairly accurate broad picture of what went down.
The Indians advanced on the Chinese position; a fight ensued, during which the Indian CO and two soldiers were killed outright, and the rest of the Indian command staff were captured alongside a significant, or even the majority of the Indian force. What was left of the Indian force fled, apparently through very ill advised route(s), which appears to be what actually caused the vast majority of the Indian fatalities, either through falls/jumps from cliffs, and/or as a result of exposure from jumping into freezing water or just getting lost/stuck in the wilds overnight.
The reason the initial report was off 3 dead was because that was the body count the PLA took at the end of the fighting, which they then communicated to the Indian side.
It wasn’t until what was left of the Indian force that originally fled made it back to base/were found, that the rest of the fatalities were discovered.
The silence from the Indian government side would make a lot more sense if it was out of shame and embarrassment that they lost so many men fleeing from a fight rather than actually fighting it. And they are desperate to sweep this whole thing under the rug before the truth comes out. It’s only the Indian media who are making waves right now while the Indian government has been surprising quiet and unforthcoming with details.
The reason the Chinese released Indian prisons in batches was probably more to do with the degree of their injuries rather than any political bargaining or consideration. The uninjured and lightly injured Indian troops were released pretty much immediately, while the rest were released once they were stabilised by Chinese medics and deemed to no longer be in a life threatening situation.
The heavy PLA helicopter sortie rate the Indians observed were medivac runs, but many (if not most) would have been for the benefit of the most seriously hurt captured Indians rather than being any indication of how many casualties the PLA might have suffered.
PLA fatalities cannot be ruled out at this point, especially during the initial stage of the fight, when the Indians likely outnumbered the PLA forward unit, and could be a reason for why this fight went lethal while all previous ones did not; but it is also possible that if the account of the event posted on Weibo by the claimed construction worker is correct, the Indian military attack on Chinese civilians is the trigger for the deadly response and the PLA suffered no fatalities.
But if my assessment is correct and only 3 Indians died as a direct and immediate result of the fight, that would pretty much be the ballpark top end of how many fatalities the PLA could have feasibly suffered. But balance of probabilities would suggest fewer if not no deaths on the PLA side, since in the overwhelmingly majority of cases, it is the side that looses and/or is outnumbered who takes the most losses when weapons are at the same level.
Since all the claims are of the Indians being outnumbered and being ‘unarmed’ (which I consider to be Indian fake news, in the previously released Indian video of the aftermath of their ambush on the Chinese officer, it is clear they carry clubs and shields as standard for patrol, so it’s ridiculous to suggest they purposefully went out to confront the PLA and didn’t bring their melee weapons), they would have had comparable or inferior weapons to the PLA. What more, the PLA are not idiots, so would not have set up in a random or bad position, they would have chosen the spot that offers them the most geographical advantage to set up, so the Indians would have had even the terrain itself against them in the fight.
Reality isn’t Bollywood, when you are outnumbered, fighting with inferior weapons, and fighting against the terrain itself, you simply do not inflict more casualties than you take.
