Punjabi LGBTQ+ influencer Mad Sandhu shot dead in Amritsar

Punjabi makeup artist and LGBTQ+ influencer Mad Sandhu was shot dead in Amritsar on Saturday evening, October 3, police said. Two unidentified men on a motorcycle opened fire on him.

Sandhu, whose full name was Madhusudan, was attacked around 6 pm on Loharka Road. He sustained a gunshot wound and was found lying on the road in a pool of blood. He died while being taken to hospital.

Amritsar Police Commissioner Harmanbir Singh Gill said Sandhu was around 30 years old. He was the son of a retired Punjab Police sub-inspector. Sandhu had a large online following, with over 200,000 followers on Instagram. He shared luxury fashion and beauty content, lifestyle vlogs, and commentary on social norms, pop culture and LGBTQ+ acceptance.

Sandhu was openly gay. He had become a prominent LGBTQ+ voice in Punjab, and often faced homophobic trolling and online threats over his appearance and content. Reports say he had been receiving death threats in the days before the attack.

A social media post claimed responsibility for the killing. It was purportedly attributed to gangster Goldy Dhillon and the Jagga Tarn Taran group, India Today reported. Police have not confirmed the claim, and the motive behind the attack remains unclear. An investigation has been launched to identify and arrest the attackers.

Sandhu's killing has drawn renewed attention to another case. Kanchan Kumari, a Punjab-based influencer known as Kamal Kaur Bhabhi, was found dead in a parked car near Bathinda in June 2025. Police have treated that case as murder too. It was allegedly linked to a man who objected to her using the surname "Kaur," since she was a non-Sikh migrant from Uttar Pradesh. That killing had already pushed many of Punjab's social media influencers into self-censorship and silence. Punjab Police's cyber wing later shut down dozens of social media accounts that had expressed support for such violence.