18 hours ago
Influencer's murder: Four social media accounts of key accused Mehron blocked
At least four Instagram handles associated with a self-styled Sikh radical leader Amritpal Singh Mehron wanted in the murder of a woman digital content creator Kanchan Kumari, were restricted in India on Saturday for allegedly posting death threats and racist content, officials said.
Mehron, a 30-year-old Nihnag, who continues to evade arrest, has a sizeable following on social media, and his verified pages have been posting objectionable audio, videos, and photos since Friday.
The action has been taken against pages— amritpalsinghmehron, amritpalsingh_mehron, and and are inaccessible in India with a message that 'these accounts are not available in India due to a legal request to restrict the content'.
Bathinda senior superintendent of police (SSP) Amneet Kondal said on Friday that the state police's cyber cell has initiated the action.
' A lookout circular has been issued to prevent Mehron from fleeing the country,' SSP Kondal added.
Police sources said several social media accounts are under lens for supporting Mehron's objectionable content online. Several social media influencers from Punjab and Haryana have been posting videos supporting Kanchan's murder, stating it was a direct warning to 'immoral elements' by Mehron.
Police officials said that teams are conducting raids to nab Mehron.
Two close associates of Mehron, Jaspreet Singh Mehron, 31, and Nimaratjit Singh Harike, 21, were arrested by the Bathinda police on Friday for allegedly strangulating Kanchan Kumari, 30, popularly known as Kamal Kaur Bhabhi, to death.
According to the Bathinda police, Mehron hatched the murder plan as a part of his 'unauthorised moral policing'.
After the arrest of his Nihang associates yesterday, Mehron went underground, but he shared videos and gave a telephonic interview to at least one YouTuber.
Mehron's Instagram pages posted these videos and audio where he not only justified the murder for bringing a bad name to Sikhism by using a Sikh name for posting vulgar digital content.
He also targeted her parental background as a migrant.
In his several online posts since yesterday, Mehron has been issuing direct threats to harm the digital content creators physically if they do not follow his diktats to stop posting 'immoral content' immediately.
According to the police, the arrested Nihangs, who are in police remand in the murder case, were 'unemployed'.
A resident of Moga, Mehron called himself a religious leader and in 2022, he unsuccessfully contested the 2022 state election from the Tarn Taran seat on the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) ticket.
As per his election affidavit, Mehron studied up to class 12 (non-medical) and holds a diploma in diesel mechanic.
