Chandigarh: The Punjab police on Friday claimed to have cracked the case of the murder of the social media influencer Kanchan Kumari – popularly known as Kamal Kaur Bhabhi – with the arrest of two ``nihangs'' and held that the crime was an outcome of ``unauthorised moral policing’’.
It may be recalled that media influencer Kanchan, about 30, was found dead under mysterious circumstances in her car parked outside Adesh University in Bathinda district late on Wednesday night.
Stating that the accused killed Kanchan for uploading ``immoral content that hurt the community’s sentiment’’, Bathinda senior superintendent of police Amneet Kondal said while the two ``nihangs'', who strangulated the media influencer, arrested so far have been identified as Jaspreet Singh, 32, Nimrat Singh, 21, search is on for the third accused Amritpal Singh Mehron, a self-styled Sikh radical leader.
Nihang Sikhs are the martial order within Sikhism, distinctive for their traditional attire and martial practices.
The police said that Mehron had called Kanchan last week and invited her for a paid promotion event in Bathinda for which she left her Ludhiana house on June 9 night with the two accused Jaspreet and Nimratjit and a few hours later she was strangled with a waistband in her car; police said that the two were not said to be ``nihangs’’ attire at the time of crime.
The police had got a lead in the case when a video surfaced on social media in which Mehron is seen justifying the crime and saying that Kanchan was killed by two of his accomplices as she belonged to a non-Sikh family but used a Sikh name for creating ``immoral digital content’’. Mehron went on to add that his accomplices would continue to target people engaged in creation of such objectionable content.
The police had also obtained CCTV footage in which an unidentified person wearing a turban was seen driving into Adesh hospital parking. A day later, locals had informed police about the stench emanating from the car. Police found Kanchan's body in it.
WAS WARNED BY ULTRA LAST YEAR
Kanchan, who had over 2.36 followers on YouTube and 3.84 lakh on Instagram, had received threats for her objectionable content in the past too. Canada-based Khalistani terrorist Arsh Dalla had also reportedly threatened Kanchan with dire consequences if she did not stop posting objectionable videos.
Police said even accused Amritpal had previously warned her against posting ``vulgar’’ videos in the past.
