A prominent Punjabi social media creator, Manjeet Kaur, has died at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) in Chandigarh following an eight-week battle against catastrophic burn injuries. The young woman succumbed to her wounds on 26 August after being abducted, tied to a tree in a secluded woodland, and set alight. Her death has ignited fierce public indignation throughout the region, putting a sharp spotlight on police inaction, procedural delays, and jurisdictional disputes between neighbouring law enforcement agencies.
The ordeal began during the night bridging 3 and 4 July. Official documents based on a complaint lodged by the victim’s mother detail how two acquaintances, identified as Shubhi and Pinda, instructed Manjeet to meet them at Sector 34 in Chandigarh. Upon her arrival, the pair assaulted her, forced her into a awaiting motor vehicle, and drove her across state lines to a remote forested patch near Morinda in Punjab.
Once at the isolated location, the assailants immobilised Manjeet by binding her tightly to a tree trunk, poured an accelerant over her body, and ignited it before abandoning her. A third acquaintance discovered her shortly afterwards and managed to extinguish the flames using a heavy blanket. Local emergency responders initially rushed Manjeet to a nearby healthcare centre in Morinda. However, given the extent of her severe burn trauma, doctors ordered an immediate transfer to Max Hospital in Mohali. As her physiological condition continued to decline, specialists arranged her admission to the intensive care unit at PGIMER in Chandigarh, where medical teams monitored her continuously until her death nearly two months later.
Beyond the sheer brutality of the attack, the case has sparked intense controversy regarding the conduct of investigating authorities. Relatives and legal representatives allege that during the early period of her hospitalisation—when Manjeet was conscious, coherent, and eager to deliver an official statement—police officers completely failed to record her dying declaration. Formal proceedings were initiated only after PGIMER officials contacted local police posts to report her passing on 26 August. Following that notification, officers escorted the victim’s mother to the Sector 34 Police Station in Chandigarh, where an official First Information Report (FIR) was formally logged late on Wednesday night. Medical examiners conducted a post-mortem examination at PGIMER on Thursday, after which her remains were released to her grieving family for final rites.
Punjab Police leadership has strongly rejected accusations of professional negligence. Senior commanders insisted that because the initial kidnapping transpired within the Union Territory of Chandigarh, primary legal jurisdiction belonged to the Chandigarh Police force. Officials added that officers in Kharar provided full support to the victim’s family to facilitate the filing of the FIR once the jurisdictional path was cleared. Investigators are now coordinating to reconstruct the entire trajectory of the crime, tracing the path from the initial abduction site in Chandigarh to the crime scene in Morinda, whilst simultaneously launching an internal review to determine why hospital visits were not arranged to secure Manjeet’s statement while she was still able to speak.
