Punjab influencer murder: Key accused fled to UAE hours after murder, says police

Chandigarh: Amritpal Singh Mehron, the alleged key accused in the murder case of Punjab-based social media influencer Kanchan Kumari alias 'Kamal Kaur Bhabhi', fled to the UAE hours after the incident, police said on Sunday.

Bhatinda Senior Superintendent of Police Amneet Kondal said police had already issued a lookout circular against Mehron, a resident of Moga.

Mehron (30) is a self-styled Sikh radical leader. He is also accused of issuing threats to at least two other Punjab-based woman social media influencers.

The police said they have also blocked some of his social media handles.

"Different police teams were already looking for Amritpal by conducting raids. On Saturday, we issued a lookout circular. When we got his passport details and checked his travel records and found that he had fled to the UAE after taking a flight from Amritsar in the evening, just hours after the murder was committed in Bathinda," Kondal told reporters in Bathinda.

"We will tie-up with other authorities/agencies and we will follow due procedure for his deportation. We have informed the authorities that Mehron is wanted in murder case," she said.

On June 13, two accused -- Jaspreet Singh (32) of Moga and Nimratjit Singh (21) from Tarn Taran -- had been arrested in connection with the murder of Kanchan Kumari, who was found dead in an abandoned car in a parking lot in Bathinda.

Kanchan Kumari was murdered on June 9.

Further investigations and questioning of the two arrested accused has revealed that two more accused are involved in the murder conspiracy.

SSP Kondal said these two are Mehron's associates and one of them has been identified as Ranjit Singh. Both have been nominated in the already registered FIR, she said, adding that efforts are on to nab them.

The 30-year-old influencer, known on Instagram as 'Kamal Kaur Bhabhi' with 384,000 followers, also operated a YouTube channel called 'Funny Bhabhi TV', which had 2,36,000 subscribers.

Kanchan, a resident of Lachman colony in Ludhiana, was strangled to death, the SSP said.

Immediately after their arrest, the two arrested men had said they killed Kanchan for uploading "immoral and vulgar content that hurt the community's sentiments".

After the alleged murder, a video had surfaced on the internet where Mehron claimed that Kanchan was killed due to her "immoral and vulgar content" on social media and two of his accomplices have been arrested in connection with the case.

In his video, Mehron also warned other influencers creating "objectionable content" to refrain from such activities. Targeting another Punjab-based influencer, he said it is "not necessary that a body will be found every time", as he indirectly referred to Kanchan's body being left in her car.

Highlighting that it was a premeditated crime, SSP Kondal said during investigations and questioning of the two arrested accused, it came to light that Mehron had planned the murder three months ago.

Mehron along with Jaspreet and Nimratjit had even travelled to Ludhiana, staying in nearby hotels at times, and tracking the movements, lifestyle and car used by Kanchan.

The SSP again detailed how Mehron had allegedly approached Kanchan the previous week on the pretext of a car promotion event in Bathinda.

On June 9, she left Ludhiana house, informing her mother that she was going to a promotional event. However, her family lost contact with her afterwards.

Mehron, Jaspreet and Nimratjit reached Ludhiana from Moga the same day and they contacted Kanchan and called her to a place in Ludhiana, the SSP said on Sunday.

After she arrived at the location Mehron sat in her car's backseat, while the other two travelled in their car. They had promised Kanchan to repair her car in a garage in Bathinda. On reaching Bathinda, Mehron, in a pre-planned conspiracy, shifted to his SUV and Nimratjit along with Kanchan went to the garage, the officer said.

Mehron parked his SUV near a petrol pump and later started driving Kanchan's vehicle and all of them sat inside. At one point, they snatched her two mobile phones and Nimratjit and Jaspreet, both sitting at back seats, strangulated her to death.

Later, Mehron left in Ranjit's car with another unknown accused while Jaspreet and Nimratjit took Kanchan's car along with her body to Adesh university and abandoned it there, they said.

When they realised that the piece of cloth used to strangulate Kanchan had been left behind, they went there again to recover it.

Her body was discovered when locals informed the police about a foul smell emanating from a car in the parking area near Adesh University.

The body was brought to the civil hospital mortuary and her mother confirmed the identity the next day.

A murder case was registered following a complaint registered by her mother, Girja Devi, the SSP said.