A brutal murder pushes Punjab's social media influencers into deafening silence

Chandigarh: An uneasy calm prevails in Punjab after the decomposed body of YouTuber and social media influencer Kanchan Kumari, alias Kamal Kaur Bhabhi, was found in her car at a parking lot in Bathinda on June 11.

A post-mortem examination of the body revealed that Kanchan, who was in her early thirties, was strangled to death a day before. The motive: her content on social media was perceived as “inappropriate, vulgar and obscene” by the murderers — at least three men led by religious vigilante Amritpal Singh Mehron.

Mehron, 30, who operates the Sikh radical group Qaum De Rakhe (protectors of the community), wants content creators to adhere to the principles he believes in.  

Kanchan’s account on Instagram had more than four lakh followers. Her YouTube channel, ‘Funny Bhabhi TV’, had 2.4 lakh followers while her Facebook account had 7.7 lakh followers.

The fear of backlash for protesting against the murder was so powerful that no one from outside Kanchan’s family attended her cremation. Her family refuses to talk to the media; none noticeable from the Punjabi film and music industry or other social media influencers spoke against the gruesome act. Bollywood and Punjabi singer Mika Singh was perhaps the only one who went on social media lambasting Mehron. 

Mehron, a Nihang (traditional Sikh warriors), fled to the UAE after the murder. He had wanted Kanchan to remove her surname ‘Kaur’ since she was a non-Sikh who migrated to Punjab from Uttar Pradesh.

The radical man worked as a bike mechanic in a village in Moga district and had fought the 2022 Punjab Assembly elections on a Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) ticket. He even managed to garner 6,363 votes but lost his security deposit.

Mehron’s ‘hit-list’ of sorts also included other social media influencers from Punjab. Deepika Luthra and Preet Jatti were among those who yielded to him by issuing public apologies. 

The Bathinda police have submitted a detailed report to the Bureau of Investigation (BoI) of Punjab police asking for the extradition of Mehron from the UAE.

Two of his accomplices, Nimrat and Jaspreet, both of them Nihangs, have been arrested. Mehron appeared remorseless in a 15-minute video he posted after the murder, taking responsibility for what happened. “Parking lots are not only in Bathinda, but in every city. And remember, a dead body is not recovered every time,” he said in the video.

The outrage over the cold-blooded murder remains subdued in the state even as narratives that justify the brutal act find supporters. 

As many as 106 social media accounts supporting the crime have been shut down by the cyber wing of the Punjab police.

Even the Akal Takht Sahib’s head granthi (priest), Giani Malkit Singh, ‘justified’ what happened to the influencer, stating that the murder was “appropriate” in light of her alleged role in promoting obscenity. “We should not listen to vulgar songs. This kind of treatment should be meted out to those who indulge in spreading vulgarity and defaming Sikh community. Nothing wrong has happened. This has happened earlier as well,” he said.  

Kanchan’s murderers are finding support from other quarters as well. Independent Faridkot MP Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa endorsed Mehron’s act, calling it a “sacrifice” for the Sikh Panth. The lawmaker, accompanied by the father of incarcerated Khadoor Sahib MP Amritpal Singh, visited Mehron’s and felicitated his family.

Before he was booked under the provisions of the stringent National Security Act, Amritpal Singh had voiced similar sentiments, inferring online content as detrimental to the ethos of Punjab’s cultural heritage. After he was arrested and sent to a jail in Assam, the space for radical sentiments was up for grabs. Mehron, a class 12th pass-out, and the likes of him, became protégés of this ideology, assuming the role of crusaders in pursuit of moral cleansing.

Meanwhile, content creators across Punjab have entered into hibernation and self-censorship, fearing they could be the next to be targeted by vigilantes. Some have apologised profusely to these self-styled ‘custodians of community’ to save their skin, while others have either shut down their social media accounts or deleted their ‘vulgar’ posts on Facebook and Instagram. A few others have sought police protection while some have armed themselves.

Radical elements in Punjab have been trigger-happy when it comes to manifesting their intolerance. Scroll back to the turbulent days of terrorism when Amar Singh Chamkila, whose popularity notched over 400 performances in a year, was shot dead by militants along with his co-singer wife Amarjot Kaur at Mehsampur near Jalandhar in March 1988. Chamkila’s songs were pigeonholed as “vulgar” which led to the killing of the couple in broad daylight.

Self-proclaimed vigilante groups are likely to thrive in the state as orthodox chauvinist sentiments galore.

(The writer is Chandigarh-based senior journalist)