E-Paper
Influencer’s murder: Victim’s 2 phones hidden in Dubai, says Bathinda police challan
Bathinda police’s challan stated that Sikh radical Amritpal Singh Mehron, the main accused and alleged conspirator of the crime, had left the mobile phones with his Dubai-based confidant, Ranjit Singh
Probing the June 2025 murder of social media influencer Kanchan Kumari, alias Kanchan Bhabhi, Bathinda police have determined that the victim’s two mobile phones are hidden in Dubai.
In the supplementary challan submitted before a Bathinda court on May 6, police stated that Sikh radical Amritpal Singh Mehron, the main accused and alleged conspirator of the crime, had left the mobile phones with his Dubai-based confidant, Ranjit Singh. The challan did not mention the efforts to get possession of the victim’s phones.
Mehron was arrested at Indira Gandhi International Airport on April 10 this year after he was deported from Dubai.
The Bathinda police team, which detained Mehron from Delhi, had recovered three mobile phones, 4,849 Dirhams of different denominations, a genuine passport and an Aadhaar card from his possession. His phones were sent for forensic analysis.
Mehron and his two accomplices, Nimratjit Singh and Jaspreet Singh, all three nihangs, had allegedly strangled Kanchan on June 10, 2025, and her body was recovered in the parking lot of Adesh Medical College and Hospital in Bhucho, Bathinda, on June 11.
After the crime, Mehron had posted videos on social media taking responsibility for Kanchan’s murder. The supplementary challan, filed after Mehron’s arrest, stated that he posted the video in three phases as he was unable to post a long video on social media in one go.
The challan added that soon after the crime, Mehron fled to Dubai by boarding a flight from Amritsar.
The document stated that it was a well-planned murder for which five persons had been nominated. Mehron, Nimratjit and Jaspreet strangled Kanchan, while one other Ranjit Singh and one Shamsher Singh, alias Shera, helped Mehron escape from Bathinda to Amritsar. Four of these accused are in police net, but Shera remains at large.
The accused had murdered Kanchan because they deemed her digital content “immoral”, which “hurt Sikh sentiments”.
Clinching evidence to establish chain of events
Investigators said Kanchan’s social media accounts were linked to her mobile phones and the devices went missing after the murder. These phones were a clinching link to establish the chain of events in the crime.
Based on Mehron’s statements during interrogation, the challan stated that the accused had obtained the password of an iPhone and another smartphone from Kanchan before her murder.
The investigation document stated that Mehron took the phones to the United Arab Emirates before fleeing India. When he got a whiff of the Punjab Police’s efforts to get him deported to India to face trial, Mehron handed over the devices to his Dubai-based confidant Ranjit.
As per the updated probe report, the forensic analysis has ruled out rape.
The challan added that Nimratjit and Jaspreet had burnt a parna (turban cloth), but police recovered the remnants. Ash from this cloth was sent for chemical analysis and forensic report is awaited.
Footage from the CCTV digital video recorder (DVR) installed in the medical college parking lot, where Nimrajit and Jaspreet were seen with the car from which the body was recovered, was also sent for forensic analysis. A report on this crucial evidence is awaited.
