Booked for Punjabi influencer murder, Sikh vigilante outfit chief: Who is Amritpal Mehron?

A video surfaced online Friday, days after the murder of social media influencer Kanchan Kumari alias Kamal Kaur 'Bhabhi' in Bathinda in Punjab.
In it, Amritpal Singh Mehron, who claims to be the head of a radical vigilante group, said Kamal Kaur was killed by two of his associates due to 'immoral and vulgar content' posted by her on social media. He alleged that this content defamed Sikh values and mocked her use of the surname 'Kaur'. He also warned others creating 'objectionable content' to refrain from such activities.
On Friday, the police arrested two of the accused in connection with the Punjabi influencer's murder. Amritpal is currently absconding, the police said.
Amritpal, 30, is a bike mechanic from the Mehron village of Moga district. In the 2022 Punjab Assembly elections, he contested the Tarn Taran seat on a Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) ticket. He managed only 6,363 votes, and his security deposit was forfeited. He later parted ways with the party.
Dilbagh Singh Patti, the senior vice-president of SAD (Amritsar) in Tarn Taran, said Amritpal had left their party to form his own outfit.
Amritpal outfit is called 'Qaum De Rakhe (protectors of the community)'. Sources said it is a radical vigilante group aligned with the Nihang Sikh traditions, which has been engaged in 'moral policing'.
Nihang is an order of Sikh warriors, characterised by blue robes, arms such as swords and spears, and decorated turbans surmounted by steel quoits.
Not much is known about Amritpal's personal life, but his social media presence is active. He operates two Instagram accounts with 351,000 and 398,000 followers respectively and frequently posts videos condemning 'obscene' content. He also routinely shared his views on Sikh traditions and culture.
In his latest video, posted on Friday, Mehron said another content creator, Deepika Luthra, would meet Kaur's 'fate' if she does not stop posting 'vulgar content'.
Luthra told the media she had deleted the 'objectionable' videos, apologised to Amritpal, and feared for the safety of her family. She said she would approach the police for protection.
Amritpal's 2022 election affidavit says he completed class 12 in Moga and followed that up with a diploma in diesel mechanics.
The affidavit shows a number of criminal charges against Amritpal. In 2020, in a case filed in Amritsar, he was booked for vandalising statues near the Golden Temple.
A year later, he was booked along with one Nimratjeet Singh for threatening a music producer for 'posting obscene content' in Barnala.
And in Ludhiana the following year, he was booked for threatening state Congress leader Raja Warring. Warring had raised objections to a picture of Amritpal Mehron along with Khadoor Sahib MP and radical leader Amritpal Singh brandishing weapons.
Kaur's murder has caused a stir in Punjab, and put the state police department on high alert. Her decomposed body was found Wednesday evening in an abandoned car in the parking area of Adesh University in Bathinda, three days after she left her house to attend a promotional event, but later went missing.
The 30-year-old influencer, had an account under the name 'Kamal Kaur Bhabhi' on Instagram with 3.87 lakh followers. She operated a YouTube channel called 'Funny Bhabhi TV', which had 2.7 lakh subscribers and another account on facebook with 7.7 lakh followers.
Kaur, who is originally from Uttar Pradesh, has been living in Punjab for several years. Sources said the accused also wanted her to remove the surname 'Kaur' from her social media handles.

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Indian Express

16 minutes ago

• Indian Express

Himanta says will tighten cattle slaughter law after series of arrests bring issue to centre stage in Assam

Politics over cattle and beef have taken a centre-stage in Assam after a string of incidents in which suspected cattle remains have been recovered near places of worship, with Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma saying Friday that the government would tighten the enforcement of the Assam Cattle Preservation Act, 2021, while Assam Congress president Gaurav Gogoi has alleged BJP involvement in these incidents ahead of next year's elections. In the past two weeks, at least 72 people have been arrested in Dhubri, Goalpara and Lakhimpur after three separate incidents of suspected cattle remains being recovered from near temples in the first two places, and near a namghar (community prayer hall) in Lakhimpur. Sarma Friday referred to these as an attempt to create unrest 'since Eid ul Zuha.' Speaking at a press conference, he said that all these incidents have taken place in 'sensitive areas.' 'When we look at all these incidents and wherever they have taken place, they are near localities where there have been arrangements of eating beef during Eid ul Zuha. Our cattle preservation bill says that if Hindu people stay in an area, or if there are temples or namghars, this kind of meat cannot be consumed within 5 kilometres radius near these. That is a legal provision,' he said. The Assam Cattle Preservation Act, 2021, that he was referring to has a section which prohibits the sale of beef and beef products in areas 'which are predominantly inhabited by Hindu, Jain, Sikh and other non-beef eating communities or within a radius of 5 km of any temple, satra, or other religious institutions belonging to Hindu religion or any other institution or area as may be prescribed by the competent authority.' Sarma said that the state government would prepare an SOP to stop qurbani (sacrifice) of cattle within a 5-km radius of such premises saying the enforcement of this 'can be a permanent solution.' 'Dhubri has one of the leading gurudwaras in the country. And there are many temples near that… But this time around Eid, the district administration had not enforced this provision the way it should have been done… So, we have directed district administrations that this significant section in our cattle preservation bill has to be enforced very strictly… This can be a permanent solution. If the 5 km provision is implemented, no one can eat and no one can slaughter within Dhubri town,' he said. Last week, he had also alleged that beef is being 'weaponised' against Hindus in the state to force them away from places. Hitting out against these developments, MP and Assam Congress chief Gaurav Gogoi has accused Sarma of 'Jinnah-like politics' and alleged a BJP role in these incidents. 'There should be investigation into all these people who have been held so far on who gave them this idea, who gave them the advice. Those who have done it have done an offence, but who gave them the idea?… Elections are close, failures have to be hidden, and this is their whole strategy,' said Gogoi on Friday. 'There are some criminal minded people within them. Within the BJP, RSS, VHP, Bajrang Dal, there are some criminal minded people who seek to do these kinds of things before elections. Our aim is not to let a communal environment be created inside Assam… We will not let him do his 'Jinnah-like' politics,' he added.

Business Standard

23 minutes ago

• Business Standard

Best of BS Opinion: When the past and the future hold us in mid-air

You know that odd moment while flipping an hourglass, when the sand hasn't quite begun to fall, and time feels suspended? It's a pause full of tension and ambiguity. We often find ourselves there, between action and consequence, old certainties and emerging futures, motion and meaning. Standing still, but not stable. That's where the world seems to be now, unsure whether to cling to the known or brave the new. Let's dive in. Take the US Federal Reserve, which chose to hold interest rates steady, but not out of comfort. Jonathan Levin writes that geopolitical unrest and Trump-era trade policies have placed Jerome Powell in an economic no-man's-land. With inflation still sticky and labour markets softening, the Fed's September decision looms like a turning hourglass, gravity pulling in all directions, but no clear drop yet. India's political hourglass is turning too, especially in Bihar. Aditi Phadnis meets a Dalit BJP MLA from Samastipur who, despite his party loyalty, admires Nitish Kumar's values. As Nitish faces perhaps his last election, the BJP is hedging bets, unsure whether to preserve past partnerships or prepare for a post-Nitish era. The sand has shifted, but succession lines remain blurred. Shekhar Gupta warns of a strategic stasis of our own making. For decades, India fought to de-hyphenate itself from Pakistan, treating each neighbour, especially China, on its own terms. Yet by making Pakistan central to domestic political narratives, the Modi government risks reviving the very hyphenation it sought to erase. This 'self-hyphenation' may make electoral sense but clouds strategic clarity. The sand shifts, but backwards. Meanwhile, in the virtual world, the sins of our ancestors are back, just with apps and algorithms. Sandeep Goyal rewires the seven deadly sins through digital lenses, from pride on Instagram to sloth on Netflix. Our online lives aren't just shaped by technology; they're trapped in timeless moral loops, only this time, the confessional booth is the comment section. But in one corner of the world, the sands finally settled in favour of redemption. South Africa's World Test Championship win, writes Kumar Abishek, wasn't just cricket, it was a healing echo of Mandela's legacy. As Temba Bavuma lifted the mace, flanked by white and Black teammates, a multiracial team stood tall on centuries of pain. In that moment, the past met the future. And for once, time didn't just pass, it progressed. Stay tuned!

Time of India

7 hours ago

• Time of India

Filing of PILs inappropriate when statutory remedies are available: HC

Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana high court has held that invocation of extraordinary jurisdiction by way of a public interest litigation (PIL) is inappropriate and impermissible when a robust and adequate statutory framework already exists for redressal of a particular grievance. "Allowing unfettered recourse to PIL in such instances would amount to a judicial usurpation of legislative foresight and undermine the primary responsibility of the legislature to craft laws. Bypassing these meticulously designed mechanisms through PIL circumvents the intended architecture of grievance redressal and potentially dilutes the role of expert authorities," the high court has said. A division bench comprising Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Sumeet Goel has passed the orders on a petition filed by one Anuj Malik and others. The petitioner sought directions to restrain all online opinion trading platforms, mobile applications, websites, and digital mediums from advertising, promoting, or marketing betting and wagering activities through platforms, including YouTube, X (Twitter), Instagram, Facebook, radio, print media, television, in blatant violation of statutory laws. They argued that despite a robust legal framework in place, the law was being flouted through misleading advertisements and unregulated financial systems. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Brigade Grand Dreams 2025 | 12 Month Payment Holiday* Brigade Group Learn More Undo The petitioners further submitted that if appropriate action was not undertaken, such platforms would continue to dupe gullible users. Responding to the plea, the govt informed that there already exists a legal and statutory framework within which any aggrieved person can approach the authorities concerned for redressal of any grievances, as raised by the petitioner. The govt counsel specifically drew the attention of the court to The Haryana Prevention of Public Gambling Act, 2025, which has been notified from April 9, 2025, and submitted that without adverting to the existing statutory framework, approaching this court by way of PIL amounts to bypassing the legislative mandate. After hearing the matter, the bench disposed of the petition, asking the petitioner to raise his grievance before the authorities concerned in terms of extant laws. BOX 'Unwarranted proliferation of litigation' Encouraging indiscriminate PILs, despite available statutory remedies, leads to an unwarranted proliferation of litigation, a burden on constitutional courts, as well as a judicial docket explosion. These risks transform constitutional courts into primary redressal fora rather than their intended role as ultimate arbiters of constitutional questions. Judicial resources, being scant and precious, must be conserved for matters of genuine public importance MSID:: 121975661 413 |