He is widely believed to have been abducted, tortured, and murdered by the Chechen authorities as part of their systematic persecution of homosexual men.

He worked for a year and a half at the Department of Culture of the Grozny Mayor's Office, and became one of the soloists of the song and dance ensemble "Stolitsa" (in Russian, Столица) and performed concerts in Chechnya and other North Caucasian republics.

On 8 August, he was reportedly arrested by Special Rapid Deployment (SOBR) security forces, this according to two eyewitnesses as they recounted to Dozhd TV.

Dzhambulat Umarov, Chechnya's minister for national policy, external relations, press, and information, was quoted in RBC as saying, "The guy is not a Wahhabi, not a terrorist, he isn’t involved in any cases.

A high-ranking diplomat from the EU mission in Russia also confirmed that Bakaev did not cross the border of any of the Schengen countries in August 2017 or later.

In October 2017, international press outlets,[12][13] and primarily the LGBT media, alleged the singer had died as a result of torture at the hands of the Chechen police as part of the anti-gay purges in Chechnya.