A scripted video is falsely shared as a real incident of a child pulling out his mother’s drowned body during the 2025 Punjab floods
Since early August 2025, Punjab and Haryana have been experiencing heavy rainfall. As a result, over 50 lives have been lost in Punjab alone, and the Army is engaged in rescue efforts. Further, farmlands across both states have suffered extensive damage. Relief is pouring in from all sections of society, including celebrities, religious organisations, and political parties (here, here, here, and here).
Amid this, a video allegedly showing a child dragging a woman’s body underwater is going viral on social media (here, here, and here), with claims that it is from Punjab and that the woman is the child’s mother who died in the floods. Let’s verify the claim made in the post in this article.
Claim: The video shows a child pulling out his mother’s drowned body from the 2025 floods in Punjab.
Fact: The video does not show a real incident of a child pulling out his mother’s drowned body during the 2025 Punjab floods. It is a scripted video created by Instagram content creator Aarti Gangwar from Jahanabad, Pilibhit, Uttar Pradesh. She also clarified in another video that she is alive and that her content is being circulated with fake claims. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
A reverse image search of keyframes from the viral video led us to several social media posts (here, here, and here) claiming that the video is scripted and created by Aarti Gangwar, a resident of Bhuda Magarsa in Pilibhit, Uttar Pradesh, and an Instagram content creator. One such post included a screenshot of the viral video and tagged Pilibhit police, alleging that she was risking her life to make such videos, spreading false rumours in society, and urging immediate action against her. The post also claimed that she had previously made derogatory remarks about the pride of Bareilly. In response, Pilibhit police stated that necessary instructions had been given to the Inspector-in-Charge of Jahanabad police station to investigate the incident.
We searched for Aarti Gangwar online and found her Instagram and Facebook accounts, where she had posted similar videos (here, here, here). The location and her clothes in these videos appeared similar to those in the viral video. In these clips, she can be seen playing in water with children while pretending to drown and die. In another video, where she again acts as if she is drowning, she added a caption saying, “Friends, don’t take this video seriously, it’s a funny video.”
On her profile, we also found an Instagram post dated 08 September 2025, where she clarified that she is alive and that the video is being falsely circulated online.
We then contacted SHO Pradeep Kumar Bishnoi of Jahanabad, Pilibhit, Uttar Pradesh, who confirmed that the woman in the viral video is Aarti Gangwar, a resident of Bhuda-Magrasa village in Jahanabad, Uttar Pradesh. He explained that due to heavy rainfall, water had accumulated in several parts of the village, and Gangwar shot the video in jest. However, given the sensitivity of the matter, Jahanabad Police issued her a warning, instructing her to remove the video from social media and not to create such content again. She later deleted the video from both Instagram and Facebook.
To sum up, a scripted video is falsely shared as a real incident of a child pulling out his mother’s drowned body during the 2025 Punjab floods.