Months-old footage of diver losing consciousness misrepresented as Indian singer's death

Published on September 30, 2025 at 08:52
2 min read
By Sachin BAGHEL, AFP India

A day after Indian musician Zubeen Garg died by drowning in Singapore, a video of a free diver falling unconscious was shared in social media posts falsely claiming it showed the popular artiste's "last moment". The clip circulated online four months before Garg's death, and matches images of a diving destination near the Egyptian resort of Dahab.

"Last moment of Zubin Da," reads the caption of a Facebook video shared on September 20, 2025.

The video shows a man underwater being helped to the surface and then held afloat by a scuba diver, followed by clips of Zubeen Garg on stage with superimposed text reading, "Miss you Zubin Da".

It was shared a day after Garg died by drowning in Singapore, which triggered a massive outpouring of grief among his millions of fans in India's northeastern Assam state, where he enjoyed a cult-like status (archived link).

Garg, a flamboyant artiste celebrated as much for his music as for his irreverent persona, was cremated on September 23 with full state honours and accorded a 21-gun salute.

Screenshot of the false Facebook post captured on September 25, 2025, with a red X added by AFP

The video was also shared in similar Facebook and Instagram posts.

A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video led to the same footage posted on Instagram on May 14 (archived link).

"Lost consciousness for the first time. Ascent from 78 meters," reads part of the video's description.

The video is overlaid with text that provides commentary on what is happening: "Coming up from 78 meters... Safety realized my condition... Loosing motor control... Blackout... Safety closed my mouth to avoid water come inside... Blow my face to bring me to consciousness... Slap... Back to live..."

The falsely shared video, however, omits the footage of the diver regaining consciousness.

Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared video (left) and the Instagram video from May, 2025 (right)

The description gives a video credit to "freelookaround" -- a free diver and content creator based in Dahab, Egypt (archived link).

The footage corresponds to Google Maps imagery from the Blue Hole of Dahab -- a popular diving destination on Egypt's Red Sea coast (archived link).

Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared footage (left) and Google Maps imagery from the Blue Hole of Dahab (right), with similarities highlighted by AFP

Gus Kreivenas, who was also tagged in the video's description, told AFP the video had "nothing to do with the singer" (archived link).

"The video actually shows me, G. Kreivenas, saving my student Marat this summer," he said on September 29.

AFP has previously debunked similar false claims about individuals' "last moments".

Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.

E-mail