CHANDIGARH: The Punjab Police have cracked the blind murder case of 30-year-old social media influencer Kanchan Kumari, popularly known as Kamal Kaur Bhabhi, with the arrest of two nihangs who allegedly killed her as part of a “moral policing” act.
Kanchan was found dead under mysterious circumstances inside her car parked outside Adesh University at Bhucho Kalan, along the Bathinda-Chandigarh highway, on Wednesday.
The arrested accused have been identified as Jaspreet Singh (32) of Mehron village in Moga district and Nimratjeet Singh (21) of Harike in Tarn Taran district. Both are unemployed and frequently wore nihang attire. They were arrested around 1 am on Thursday. However, the key accused, Amritpal Singh Mehron, remains absconding.
Canada-based designated gangster-terrorist Arsh Dalla had also allegedly threatened Kanchan earlier, warning her of dire consequences if she continued posting “objectionable videos”.
Confirming that the murder was premeditated and executed with full coordination, Senior Superintendent of Police of Bathinda, Amneet Kondal, said, “The alleged accused Jaspreet Singh and Nimratjeet Singh have been arrested for the murder, while a search is on for the third accused, Amritpal Singh Mehron, a self-styled Sikh radical leader, who is on the run.”
“They had earlier warned the deceased Kanchan not to post her online content, which they thought was ‘vulgar’ and ‘objectionable’. The main accused Amritpal Singh had earlier warned her to stop posting ‘vulgar’ videos and had planned to teach her a lesson. He, along with others, then hatched a conspiracy and they strangled her to death at an isolated location on Tuesday,” Kondal added.
She further revealed that on June 7, Amritpal had approached Kanchan at her Ludhiana residence and sought promotional work in Bathinda. “He again met her the next day and convinced her to visit Bathinda. Then, on June 9, he contacted her again, and Kanchan agreed. That night, her mother could not contact her. Later, on Wednesday night, her decomposed body was found inside her car parked outside Adesh University near Bathinda,” said Kondal.
“The alleged accused also took her to a workshop on the pretext of getting her car repaired. During an argument, Jaspreet, who was wearing a waistband under his shirt, strangled her. Later, her body was shifted and dumped in her car to mislead the police,” Kondal said.
She added that the police collected CCTV footage to trace the accused during the investigation.
Kanchan, who belonged to a family of migrant workers but spoke fluent Punjabi, had 2.36 lakh followers on YouTube, 3.84 lakh on Instagram, and 1.74 lakh on Facebook. She frequently posted reels and stories and was cremated in Bathinda on Thursday as her family was unable to take her mutilated body back to Ludhiana.
Her mother, Girija Devi, told the police that her daughter often travelled for promotional work.
The arrests came after Amritpal Singh Mehron claimed responsibility for the murder on social media, just hours after Kanchan’s decomposed body was discovered.
A video surfaced online in which Mehron is seen justifying the crime, saying Kanchan was killed by two of his accomplices. He claimed she belonged to a non-Sikh family but used a Sikh name to create “immoral content”. He went on to say that his accomplices would continue to target people engaged in objectionable content creation.