Manjeet Kaur, a 28-year-old social media influencer from Kharar in Punjab, died on Wednesday, August 26, at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) in Chandigarh, nearly two months after she was allegedly abducted and set on fire near Morinda, Punjab. She had spent close to seven weeks battling severe burn injuries, much of that time spent unconscious, before finally succumbing to her wounds in a case that has since triggered outrage across Punjab and Chandigarh and reopened uncomfortable conversations about women’s safety and police responsiveness.
According to a complaint filed by her mother, Kanta Devi, the ordeal began on the intervening night of July 3 and 4, when two acquaintances identified as Shubhi and Pinda allegedly called Kaur to meet them near a liquor shop in Sector 34, Chandigarh. From there, she was reportedly forced into a car and driven to a forested stretch near Morinda, where she was assaulted, tied to a mulberry tree, and set alight. Another acquaintance is said to have come upon the scene shortly afterward and used a blanket to smother the flames, likely saving her from dying at the spot. Kaur was rushed first to a hospital in Morinda, then transferred to Max Hospital in Mohali as her condition worsened, before finally being referred to PGIMER in Chandigarh on July 9 given the severity of her burns.
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What followed was an agonizing stretch of nearly two months in which Kaur remained unconscious for weeks, only briefly regaining consciousness on August 5. Her family says that once she came to, she specifically asked that her statement be recorded by police, and a daily diary report documenting this request was logged at the PGI police post. Despite this, her mother alleges, the investigating officer assigned to the case never actually came to the hospital to record her account while she was still alive — a lapse that has drawn sharp public criticism and raised difficult questions about how the case was handled in its early, and arguably most crucial, weeks. Kaur ultimately died without ever having her statement formally taken, leaving investigators to reconstruct events largely through her mother’s complaint and other evidence.
Police have pushed back on the narrative of inaction. Kharar DSP Ishan Singla said the alleged abduction technically fell under Chandigarh’s jurisdiction rather than Kharar’s, and maintained that his officers had in fact assisted the family throughout, including escorting Kaur’s mother to the relevant police station to help get an FIR registered. Still, it was only after Kaur’s death on August 26 that the case moved forward with real urgency. Her mother was taken to the Sector 34 police station, where a First Information Report was finally filed and her statement about the sequence of events was recorded, more than seven weeks after the attack itself.
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Chandigarh Police have since registered charges of kidnapping, murder, and joint criminal liability under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita against the two named suspects, Shubhi and Pinda. Chandigarh SSP Kanwardeep Kaur confirmed the case was registered on the basis of the mother’s complaint, while DSP (South) Gurjeet Kaur said investigators have gathered leads on the suspects’ possible whereabouts and are conducting raids in an effort to track them down; both remain absconding as of now. Teams are also combing through CCTV footage along the route between Sector 34 and Morinda and questioning people known to Kaur in an attempt to establish a clear motive and timeline. One of the accused was reportedly known to Kaur personally, adding a layer of betrayal to an already disturbing case. Kaur, who was divorced, is survived by her seven-year-old son.
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Before the attack upended her life, Kaur had built a modest but genuine online following, with roughly 146,000 followers on Instagram and close to 4,000 subscribers on YouTube, where she posted reels centered on beauty products alongside videos set to popular Punjabi and Haryanvi songs. She was also a mother to a seven-year-old son. For many of her followers, she was simply a familiar face in short-form video content, which has made the brutality of the circumstances surrounding her death all the more jarring for those who watched her online presence over the years. As investigators continue their work, the allegations against the named suspects remain unproven in court, and the exact motive behind the attack is still being pieced together. 
