A clip viewed tens of thousands of times on social media shows an Instagram user’s husband getting a facial during a holiday in India’s Punjab state, contrary to posts claiming it is leaked footage of Prime Minister Narendra Modi getting a massage. The Instagram user told AFP the clip, which was re-shared by a former Modi supporter, “has no connection to any political figure”.
“LEAKED video of Narendra Modi massage, reports coming that Intel agencies of US has ton of videos of him in compromising positions,” says the caption of an X video shared on April 18, 2026.
The video shows a man getting a facial in what appears to be a hotel room.
It circulated after it was re-shared by a well-known Indian columnist Madhu Purnima Kishwar — a former Modi supporter. Kishwar was already the subject of a complaint lodged in a Varanasi court, accusing her of posting “objectionable content” targeting the prime minister (archived link).
Screenshot of the false post captured on April 29, 2026, with a red X added by AFP
The same video was also shared in similar Facebook and X posts.
But the footage does not show the Indian prime minister getting a massage.
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video led to the same clip posted on Instagram on April 12 (archived link).
Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared video (L) and the April 12 Instagram clip
It was posted by Pardeep Kaur Dhillon, who also posted a similar clip of the same man having a facial on March 28 (archived link).
Pardeep told AFP the claims circulating on social media are false.
“The man shown in the video is my husband, and he is not Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” she said on April 23. “The video was recorded during our personal visit to a hotel/spa in Amritsar, Punjab, India. It has no connection to any political figure.”
The claim was earlier debunked by News Hour India, and complaints have been lodged against people who shared the video — including Kishwar — alongside the false claim on social media (archived link).
Politicians are frequent targets of online misinformation, and AFP has previously debunked misleading claims involving India’s prime minister.
