3 min readMumbaiFeb 12, 2026 10:19 PM IST
The Mumbai police investigating the various threats received by Bollywood celebrities after the firing outside director Rohit Shetty’s residence on February 1 claimed that a total of three persons have received threats including actor Ranveer Singh, actor Salman Khan’s brother-in-law Aayush Sharma and another person. Of the three, the police said they suspect the e-mail sent to Aayush Sharma is a “copy cat threat” – similar to threats sent earlier by people posing to be members of Lawrence Bishnoi gang.
The gang is suspected to be behind the firing outside the directors’ residence.
Police are checking if the other two instances too are “copy cat threats” or sent by the Lawrence gang.
Even in the aftermath of the firing outside actor Salman Khan’s residence and the murder of Baba Siddique in 2024, such threat e-mails were reported, which turned out to be sent by miscreants and not by the Lawrence gang.
A top IPS officer of the Mumbai Police said, “We are still verifying if the messages that have been sent are actually from the Lawrence gang or someone else taking advantage of the firing outside Rohit Shetty’s residence.”
An officer said, “The threat mail received by Ayush seems to be a ‘copy cat threat mail’ that was the case in the past as well. The mail was sent from Proton mail which offers anonymity while gangs want publicity. Usually, after one instance of an attack is reported widely, there are people who jump in the fray and send messages on contact details of those available online.”
The official added that the threat audio note linked to Ranveer Singh was sent to somebody from a well-known agency that handles several actors.
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“It was not sent to his manager,” the official said.
The official added so far they are in the know of three instances but refused to elaborate who the third person was.
Meanwhile, in the probe into the Rohit Shetty case, the police said they would soon be taking the custody of Pravin Lonkar, the brother of Lawrence gang member Shubham Lonkar, who was arrested by the police from Pune in connection with the Baba Siddique murder case.
“His role in this particular instance has come to the fore and we will soon be taking his custody,” the official added.
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Past ‘copy cat’ threats
After a threat letter was received by Salman Khan from the Lawrence gang in July 2022, his manager had received a threat mail in March 2023, where the person claimed to be from the gang. Eventually it turned out to be an Indian student studying in the UK who had no connection to the gang.
In April 2025, Zeeshan Siddique, son of NCP leader Baba Siddique, received a threat mail which claimed to be from D Company that demanded Rs 10 crore, months after his father was gunned down allegedly by the Lawrence gang. It turned out to be an Indian working in Trinidad and Tobago and was arrested when he returned to the country.
