The 17-year-old cousin brother of a Muslim singer, who sang a bhajan, was stabbed to death by unidentified assailants in Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffarnagar. The victim, Khursheed, is the cousin of singer Farmani Naaz.
The crime took place on Saturday night at Muhammadpur Mafi village in Ratanpuri, Superintendent of Police (rural) Atul Shrivastava told PTI.
"The body has been sent for postmortem examination. We have lodged an FIR and initiated investigation," he said.
Last year, Naaz sang 'Har Har Shambhu', a devotional song praising Lord Shiva. A Darul Uloom Deoband cleric termed it "un-Islamic" and "haram" (forbidden). The video of the song has since been removed from the singer's YouTube channel (which has more than 4.5 million subscribers.)
Naaz, a resident of Muzaffarnagar, defended herself saying artistes do not have a religion and that she has not erred.
She had participated in Season 12 of the popular singing reality show Indian Idol where she revealed that she wanted to earn money to treat her son who was born with a throat defect and that her husband had left them.
(With PTI inputs)