Rohit Shetty’s house shooting in Juhu was just a trailer; This time, the lead will find its mark – the director himself – if he does not pay the amount. The threat, delivered via an audio clip allegedly by Lawrence Bishnoi’s gang, orders Shetty to pay up $20 crores as extortion money.
The threat comes just four months after the Bishnoi gang opened fire on Shetty’s home in Juhu, and a similar shooting incident at actor Salman Khan’s Bandra home in 2024. Police believe these incidents are aimed at asserting the gangs’ dominance and intimidating the Indian film industry.
Police said a 90-second audio clip was received by Shetty’s staff on Saturday morning, and it allegedly contains a message from Shubham Lonkar, a close aide of jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi. Lonkar is on the run and is wanted in two high-profile cases – the murder of politician Baba Siddique in 2024 and the shooting at Shetty’s house in February 2026.
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“Rohit Shetty’s staff told us that they received the audio clip containing the threat,” a police officer from the Mumbai Crime Branch said. Juhu Police registers a crime. They say, prima facie, the voice in the clip is Loncar’s and they have sent the clip for forensic examination.
In the February 1 shooting incident, five bullets were fired outside Shetty’s house near Hasia Kalakar Mahmud Chowk in Juhu, just in the middle of the night. The Bashnoi gang claimed responsibility for the attack. The shooting was done by bike-wielding Deepak Sharma, who was arrested in Agra while fleeing.
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This was not the first time that Sharma had been arrested in connection with a shooting incident. Sharma, who was only in his 20s, told investigators that he was influenced by the Bishnoi gang’s social media posts and hence decided to join them.
In April, the Crime Branch filed a 1,624-page chargesheet in the shooting case, naming 15 people while declaring two others as absconding – Praveen Lonkar and Arzoo Bishnoi.
