Mansa: Tall and towering, Chand Singh cannot rely on just his personality to stay safe on the streets of Punjab. Not after what happened to YouTuber and content creator Kamal Kaur, who was strangled to death in Bathinda earlier this month. Now, Singh, an influencer from Mansa district, takes comfort in the trusty tiny pistol in his pocket and the two gigantic country rifles his aides tote when they accompany him.
Singh, who runs a platform called ‘Jatt Babe Bandra To’ from Bandra village, is one of several Punjabi influencers whose lives have been threatened by Amritpal Singh Mehron, accused in Kaur’s murder. The self-anointed ‘guardian’ of the Sikh panth is waging a public war against what he deems as vulgar content on social media.
Across Punjab, social media influencers are in a state of panic, wondering if they are next on the list. Deepika Luthra, Chand Singh, and Preet Jatti are among those Mehron has threatened online for posting ‘obscene’ content. Some, like Singh, have armed themselves. Others have barricaded themselves at home, deleting old posts where they’ve used abusive language and issuing public apologies. The fact that Mehron managed to escape the police and flee to Dubai has only deepened mistrust in Punjab’s law enforcement.
“Mehron cannot target the big singers and actors who use cuss words in their content, so he comes after small content creators trying to make a living from small villages,” Chand Singh said from a newly built room in his modest house in Bandra village. “But I realise my mistake. I have already issued an apology, and I swear I will find a new direction in my content. I don’t want to offend Punjabi society.”
The flood of apologies and self-censorship brings back memories of the turbulent 1980s, when singers and actors were threatened by militants. The high-profile assassination of Amar Singh Chamkila and Amarjot Kaur, gunned down by armed men on bikes on 8 March 1988, shook the state. Now, there are fears Punjab is reliving that nightmare.
[Mehron] kept his kirpan on the road amid the crowd and asked me to bend to it and apologise to the people of Punjab for the content I was posting. I additionally gave an apology in writing. I cooperated, and yet their threats haven’t stopped
-Deepika Luthra, content creator
“This radicalism and moral policing of Punjab’s youth really started with Amritpal Singh (the radical preacher and MP who is currently in jail). Radical vigilantes are back in the news, and it is a reminder of the dark days of 1984,” said Ronki Ram, dean of political science at Panjab University. The rise of the MP, a proponent of Khalistan, after the murder of actor Deep Sidhu in 2023, has continued to disturb the state’s social fabric. All this unfolds as Punjab battles rising unemployment, debt, and drug addiction.
In a 15-minute video where Mehron takes responsibility for Kamal Kaur’s murder, he is dressed in the traditional attire of the Nihang sect.
“Parking lots are not only in Bathinda, but in every city. And remember, a dead body is not recovered every time,” he says in the video.
Akal Singh, head Granthi Giani Malkit Singh, in a conversation with the media on Monday, called the murder of Kaur “appropriate” and said there was “nothing wrong” in killing someone who was misappropriating the Sikh name and making lewd content.”Those who change their names to other religions and spread vulgarity and defame the Sikh community, should meet this fate. Whatever has happened is not wrong.”
Kaur’s murder shows that radical vigilantes are rising again in Punjab, said Ram. And unlike in the 1980s, they are now using social media to spread their message.
Luring for business, then killing
A young content creator from Amritsar, Deepika Luthra slowly and steadily built her career on Facebook and Instagram. She makes additional money by promoting small hyperlocal brands, like a clothing showroom or an upcoming cafe in Amritsar or nearby districts.
So it wasn’t unusual when she got a call in late February to promote a new mobile phone store in Chima Kalan village in Tarn Taran. The client even sent her an advance booking amount of Rs 2,000. On 2 March 2024, she reached the location.
It would prove to be a nightmare.
Luthra and her cameraperson were allegedly held hostage by Amritpal Singh Mehron and his aides. Her car was blocked so she couldn’t leave, and she was made to bend to her knees and apologise.
“Seven to eight men in blue (Nihang clothes) were at the scene. They snatched my phone, my car keys, and started going through my phone. They were yelling at me for the kind of content I post,” Luthra said.
To defuse the situation quickly, Luthra promised to stop posting “double meaning” content—posts with sexual undertones—on her pages. But the men were insistent that she delete her entire social media presence. It was something she wasn’t willing to do, since it’s her source of income.
“He kept his kirpan (sword) on the road amid the crowd and asked me to bend to it and apologise to the people of Punjab for the content I was posting. I additionally gave an apology in writing. I cooperated, and yet their threats haven’t stopped,” Luthra said.
They have caused me so much tension. I can’t take it. I have a five-month-old baby… In my years of being active on social media, I’ve never been this sad. Everyone uploads videos of dancing to songs. They said I’m not allowed to do that either
-Influencer Preet Jatti in a now-deleted video
For Mehron, women posting such content online are the biggest threat to an already endangered Punjabi culture. Even though Luthra was let go with a warning, another influencer, Kamal Kaur, wasn’t so lucky.
Kaur had been lured to Bathinda under a similar pretext—promoting a store in the city—when she was allegedly strangled to death by Jaspreet Singh and Nimratjit Singh, two Nihang Sikhs said to be part of Amritpal’s coterie. Her body was found on 12 June, three days after she had left her house.
A disowned influencer
Kanchan Kumari, also known as Kamal Kaur, grew up in Ludhiana’s Lakshman Nagar, a congested neighbourhood of migrant workers from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
People here claim they saw her grow from a toddler to an adult, but nobody in the neighbourhood says they knew her or were friends with her.
“Their family was always a bit aloof. We never bothered with them,” a shopkeeper near her house said. Next-door neighbours also claimed to have never spoken to the family.
After her brutal murder, Kaur has been disowned by her entire neighbourhood, even family. Nobody wants to associate with her. Nobody wants to denounce her murder.
Her body was never brought back home —she was cremated in Bathinda itself.
A First Information Report under sections 103 (murder), 238 (disappearance), and 61(2) of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita has been registered.
At a press briefing on Sunday, SSP Bathinda Amneet Kondal said that during interrogation, the two arrested for Kaur’s murder revealed that the main conspirator was Amritpal Singh Mehron, and that he had been planning her murder for three months.
“Nimrat and Jaspreet on orders of Amritpal strangled Kaur for 10-15 minutes till she stopped breathing,” Kondal said. Her body was found three days later, discovered after people complained of the stench emanating from the car she was killed in.
Her family refuses to talk about the murder.
“Please leave us alone,” her sister Neetu Tiwari said softly when ThePrint visited their house in Ludhiana last Saturday. “We have been tortured enough. Our mother has developed breathing issues after the case. We don’t want to invite more trouble.”
Neighbours say the family has shut itself off completely and didn’t even open the gates for elders who had come to offer condolences.
“We all knew of the kind of videos she made, so we always maintained a distance,” said a 40-year-old man who works as an engineer at a multinational company. “Of course I knew of them, but I never watched them.”
‘Soft porn’ and double standards
Kaur’s final Instagram post from six days ago is captioned: “No emotion, no love, no f**. Only doubt doubt doubt is left.” It has more than 3,800 comments under it—some saying “Waheguru” in condolence, others expressing anger or social commentary.
“It’s deeply disturbing and shameful to witness the state of our society today. Who granted anyone the authority to take a life that God has bestowed?” wrote one commenter. Another posted: “Are they killing punjabi singers for promoting guns, money, girls, drugs? Are they killing honey singh? Sunny Leone? Female singer who show clevage?” (Sic.)
On Instagram, Kaur had 4.27 lakh followers, with more joining after news of her death. She had 2.39 lakh subscribers on YouTube, and 7.7 lakh followers on Facebook.
In recent posts, she can be seen vibing to music with her young nephews in a car, or simply dancing to a song. Her content was sometimes suggestive at a PG-rated level—preening in a low-cut dress or flaunting daring shorts—but some now-deleted posts went further, resembling a desi OnlyFans account.
The onus of this sex culture is on men, not women. These are women who have tried to live by the terms of society but have earned nothing—no respect or freedom. They realise the only agency they can gain is money, so they monetise the male gaze
-Khyati Shree, content creator
For Mehron, this was vulgar and full of sexual innuendo.
Kaur wasn’t doing it just for attention. It was also a business strategy for her paid subscribers on YouTube and for ‘custom videos’ on Facebook. The adult entertainment market is gigantic, valued globally at $71.95 billion and projected to exceed $100 billion by 2034. While there are no estimates for the size of the industry in India, Statista reports that 15 million Indians log in every month to OnlyFans, where users stream content exclusively for subscribers. Posting explicit content is legally prohibited in India, but such material is still common online.
“So what if she was killed? It’s a good thing that she was. Actually, it happened late. She should’ve been killed off 5-7 years ago,” Mehron said in a video statement.
According to Khyati Shree, a content creator, women like Kaur are brave, breaking the shackles of society and leveraging male desire to earn money.
“The onus of this sex culture is on men, not women,” she said. “These are women who have tried to live by the terms of society but have earned nothing—no respect or freedom. They realise the only agency they can gain is money, so they monetise the male gaze.”
Khyati pointed out that while women are shamed or even killed for entering this market, corrupt men are still respected in society as long as they earn well.
Mehron’s video, in which he justified Kaur’s murder, was intercut with clips from her own content. In one, she says, “Call me if you want to talk dirty.” In another, she is showering to a Chamkila song. In one more, she talks about shaving her pubic hair.
These videos have been used as the justification for murdering her in cold blood.
“I don’t care if I’m right or wrong. I have to save a generation of Punjabis,” Mehron says in the video. “If I see another such video made on Punjab’s land… then see.”
Certain pages have openly celebrated the murder.
“Look at the kind of filth on social media. Whatever pra (brother) did is commendable,” says a video posted on the Sikh Empire Facebook page.
Some content creators have started advising women on how to behave online, suggesting they always wear traditional clothes when posting photos or videos. Others endorse moral strictures but avow murder is going too far.
“It was dirty but it is not good to be happy on someone’s death,” wrote an Instagram user on Kaur’s final post.
Also Read: ‘Delete or you’ll find me nearby’—Kamal Kaur Bhabhi murder accused’s chilling message to influencers
Fighting fear and extremism
Giani Baba Buta Singh has had 100 missed calls today. All the numbers are suspicious, likely generated via VPNs. On the other end are young men hurling abuses and threatening to kill him.
“You’re spoiling the name of Punjab!” one caller yelled.
“Babaji, please understand what you’re doing is wrong. Stop posting videos,” another said, more politely.
Buta Singh’s response to most of these threat calls is more or less the same.
“Get lost and get a job!” he yells back in Punjabi.
Baba Buta is a former Granthi (priest) who found internet fame three years ago through his videos. He strongly opposes Khalistani ideology and religious extremism, which he says go against the teachings of Guru Nanak Dev.
Two armed constables are posted outside his home at all times. The local sub-inspector drops by at least twice a week to check on him.
He has been unequivocally condemning Mehron’s actions and has repeatedly raised the issue of Kaur’s murder. He even asked influencers who are receiving threats to reach out to him.
“I have not counted, but I think within a day close to 200 people reached out to me for help,” said Singh, who is currently using three phones.
He says radicalism has been seeded into Punjabi society by Khalistani sympathisers and ISI-backed actors who want to trigger a Hindu-Sikh divide in the state.
While Singh is taking a defiant tone, younger influencers are terrified. Many have started posting clarification or apology videos, detailing the harassment they’re facing from Mehron.
Simarpreet Kaur, also known as Preet Jatti, an influencer from Tarn Taran, had posted videos expressing her anguish over the harassment she was facing. In one of them, a man can be heard yelling at her: “After today, if any photo or video of you dancing to music appears on social media…” She has since taken down these videos.
“He (Mehron) had warned me about promoting astrology content on my page. I had tendered the apology then and deleted the videos,” she said in a now-deleted video. “They have caused me so much tension. I can’t take it. I have a five-month-old baby… In my years of being active on social media, I’ve never been this sad. Everyone uploads videos of dancing to songs. They said I’m not allowed to do that either.”
Another social media influencer, who didn’t want to be named, said Mehron had been threatening him for over two years. He also alleged that he had paid Mehron off to stop.
In the environment of intimidation and fear, content creators are also losing out on business.
“After what happened in March, promotional deals had significantly declined,” Luthra said. “Now that he has publicly defamed me, brands have pulled out, and I have had to return Rs 80,000 to different companies I was scheduled to shoot promotional videos for.”
Since Kamal Kaur’s murder, the harassment has worsened. Local media reports that creators like Luthra have received threats from Babbar Khalsa. Chand Singh said someone claiming to be with jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi called him.
Luthra’s phone has been switched off since, while Chand Singh now talks from behind the protection of a gun.
“My biggest worry is that someone not even associated with Mehron will take advantage of the situation and try to extort us,” he said.
Back in Lakshman Nagar, neighbours say Kaur was the sole breadwinner of her family.
“Her brothers are unemployed. She was taking care of the whole family. This much I know,” said a neighbour who works in a multinational company.
Others are critical of the hypocrisy and double standards of the society they live in.
“Those who used to enjoy her videos are the ones celebrating her death today,” said an elderly woman in the neighbourhood.
(Edited by Asavari Singh)