Haryanvi Singer Ankit Balyan Shot Dead Outside Gym: CCTV Reveals Chilling Attack

A brazen daylight murder has shaken Uttar Pradesh’s Shamli district after Haryanvi singer and YouTuber Ankit Balyan was gunned down outside a gym on Wednesday evening. Surveillance footage from the area has since surfaced, offering a disturbing, frame-by-frame account of the attack that lasted mere seconds but left the 32-year-old artist dead at the scene.

Haryanvi singer Ankit Baliyan, 32, was shot dead outside a gym in Uttar Pradesh’s Shamli on Wednesday evening, in a murder bearing similarities to the killing of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala. The footage shows suspected attackers arriving near the gym on motorcycles before approaching the singer, with four men reportedly seen moving towards him on foot, some carrying bags slung over their shoulders. According to police accounts, the assailants struck the moment Balyan stepped out of the fitness centre, leaving him no chance to react.

Authorities confirmed that the victim, a resident of Banti Khera, was ambushed by three to four men as soon as he stepped outside the fitness centre. Shamli Superintendent of Police NP Singh told media that a call was received on the emergency helpline about a man from Banti Khera visiting the gym, and that he was shot dead by three to four men the moment he left. Preliminary reports suggest the attackers allegedly fired around 18 rounds as Baliyan stepped out of the gym. The sheer number of shots fired in such a short window points to a planned, targeted assault rather than a spontaneous confrontation.

The killing has inevitably drawn comparisons to other high-profile assassinations of regional singers. Commentators have pointed to parallels with the 2022 murder of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala, who was attacked by armed assailants in a targeted shooting in Punjab’s Mansa district. Haryana’s music industry has its own grim history of such violence, with folk singer Harshita Dahiya having been shot dead years earlier in circumstances that also involved close-range gunfire and unresolved motives.

Balyan had built a substantial following through Haryanvi folk and pop tracks, some of which leaned heavily into themes of crime, courtrooms and rural machismo. He had gained popularity in the Haryanvi music scene with songs including “Bhari Court Mein Goli Marenge Meri Jaan.” That very song has now become central to one of the most striking twists in the investigation.

A day after the murder, a message purportedly linked to the Gogi gang began circulating online, claiming responsibility for the killing. The purported post drew attention to Balyan’s song “Court Me Goli,” released around three years earlier, claiming it was based on a courtroom shooting and reportedly linked to his rivalry with the gang. The gang takes its name from gangster Jitendra Gogi, who was killed in a shootout inside Rohini Court in September 2021. Investigators have been cautious about the claim’s legitimacy. A man identifying himself as Bholu Shahpuri of Sonepat claimed that the Gogi gang was responsible for Balyan’s murder, though police have not confirmed the authenticity of the message.

Police are not ruling out other explanations either. There has been speculation that Balyan was planning to contest the upcoming panchayat elections, although there has been no official confirmation about his political plans or whether they were connected to the murder. The case has also taken on a political dimension, with opposition leaders demanding a thorough probe. Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav condemned the killing and demanded that the case also be investigated from the angle of possible political rivalry.

For now, investigators are relying on a combination of CCTV footage, forensic evidence and digital trails to piece together who ordered the hit and why. A murder case has been registered against four unidentified assailants on a complaint by Balyan’s father, Satvir. As teams fan out across state lines to trace the shooters, the singer’s grieving family and fans are left waiting for answers in a case that has once again exposed the deadly risks faced by regional artists whose fame sometimes collides with the criminal underworld they sing about.