Chandigarh: Punjab Police have opened a cybercrime case after an AAP legislator said an unknown caller, posing as a member of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, sought ₹7 crore from Arvind Kejriwal and threatened to kill the former Delhi chief minister and his daughter. The complaint was filed by Tilak Nagar MLA Jarnail Singh, who said the threat reached him by phone and WhatsApp.
According to Singh’s complaint to the Mohali Senior Superintendent of Police on November 6, an unidentified person called his personal mobile number at around 6 p.m. and later sent a WhatsApp message from the same number. The caller allegedly said he belonged to the Lawrence gang and asked Singh to pass on an extortion demand to Kejriwal, the AAP’s national convener, as reported by Daily Excelsior.
The alleged WhatsApp message stated: “I am from the Lawrence gang. Tell Arvind Kejriwal to pay Rs 7 crore, or I will kill Arvind Kejriwal and his daughter, Harshita Kejriwal.” Singh’s complaint also said the sender’s WhatsApp profile displayed the name “~ $H.”
FIR And Investigation
Acting on the complaint, Mohali’s Cyber Crime Police Station registered a first information report against an unidentified accused on November 7 at 9:16 p.m. The FIR cites Sections 308(4), 351(2), 351(3), 351(4) and 111(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with Section 66D of the Information Technology Act—provisions relating to extortionate threats, criminal intimidation, organised crime and cheating by personation through computer resources.
Inspector Sunil Kumar of the Cyber Crime Police Station has been given charge of the probe. Police are expected to scrutinize the mobile number, call records, WhatsApp exchanges, IP logs and location details to identify the sender and test the claimed gang link.
Political Backdrop , Unproven Link
The alleged threat follows Kejriwal’s repeated public criticism of the Lawrence Bishnoi network. In a Delhi Assembly debate in November 2024, he questioned how the gang could allegedly run an extortion operation while Bishnoi remained lodged in Gujarat’s Sabarmati jail, and asked whether the BJP was protecting him—an allegation that has not been established.
Kejriwal raised the issue again in Jalandhar in June 2026, accusing the Centre of shielding the jailed gangster and questioning restrictions on Punjab Police bringing him to Punjab for interrogation. The complaint, however, does not establish any connection between those remarks and the alleged extortion attempt.
No arrest has been made in the case so far.
