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Amritpal Mehron: Radical Sikh leader not new to controversy
Fugitive leader brought back from the Middle East and sent to five-day remand for the murder of influencer Kanchan Kumari.
A Bathinda court on Friday sent radical Sikh leader Amritpal Singh Mehron to five days in police remand following his arrest for the murder of social media influencer Kanchan Kumari, alias Kamal Kaur Bhabhi.
Mehron, who is no stranger to controversy, was deported from the UAE and taken into custody at Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi by a team led by Bathinda DSP Sarvjeet Singh Brar.
Mehron stands accused of strangling Kanchan on June 10 last year for creating what he deemed “immoral content” that hurt Sikh sentiments. Within hours of the murder, he fled from Amritsar to the United Arab Emirates. District police authorities have since dubbed his actions “unauthorised moral policing,” noting that Mehron has been deeply involved in religious and social vigilantism for several years.
Trail of criminal cases
The fugitive leader’s criminal record includes at least three cases related to moral policing, ranging from criminal intimidation to murder and attempt to murder.
In 2020, he was booked in Amritsar for vandalising statues of folk dancers on the Heritage Street near the Golden Temple, claiming they violated Sikh traditions.
A year later, he was booked in Barnala for thrashing a music producer over “obscene” music.
By November 2022, another case was registered in Ludhiana after he flaunted weapons on social media and issued threats to Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring.
Mehron leads a self-styled radical organisation, Qaum De Rakhe, which observers believe was aimed at attracting community attention. Police said he built “a sizeable following” on Instagram, though his pages were blocked in June last year after he was spotted issuing death threats to digital content creators and making racial comments. Despite his influence, investigators noted that Mehron was never financially independent; his only known employment was a brief stint in retail cement sales six years ago.
Political ambitions, humble roots
In 2022, Mehron unsuccessfully ventured into politics, contesting the assembly elections from Tarn Taran on the ticket of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar). Residents of his native village in Moga recall him frequently moving around in a fleet of SUVs, though the ownership of these vehicles remains unknown. He belongs to a family of masons; his father, Baljinder Singh, served as a block samiti member from 2013-18.
Baljinder says that despite being born into a half-Muslim family, he and his son practice Sikhism. He traces Mehron’s radical shift back to a failed stint abroad. “About 11 years ago, Mehron went to Malaysia through an agent. But after an exploitative experience, he took shelter in a gurdwara, returned to India after four months and turned more to socio-religious activities,” Baljinder said earlier.
