Ayushmann Khurrana threat: Audio demands crores, police verifying sender

Actor Ayushmann Khurrana has received a threatening audio message from a man who claimed to be associated with the Lawrence Bishnoi gang and demanded crores of rupees from him, Mumbai Police sources said on Wednesday (4 November). Police are now trying to verify who sent the message behind the Ayushmann Khurrana threat.

Investigators are matching the voice in the audio clip against a sample of the supposed sender, whose name is already in police records, according to police sources. The police cyber cell is tracing the number and the location the message was sent from, mid-day reported. The sender’s claimed link to the gang has not been established.

Neither Khurrana nor Mumbai Police has issued an official statement so far. Police noted that callers have misused the names of big gangs in the past to create fear, so the claim needs to be verified before a formal case is registered, mid-day reported.

It is the second such threat to a Bollywood actor in two days. On Monday, actor Tusshar Kapoor received an extortion call from a man who claimed to be Harry Boxer, an associate of Bishnoi, and demanded ₹5 crore. The Crime Branch compared the voice with an official sample of Boxer’s voice and found a mismatch, and police suspect that call was a hoax.

Police are trying to find out whether the two messages are connected, and whether the actors were really under threat or were being intimidated by someone using the gang’s name, India Today reported.

The messages have caused particular concern after gunmen opened fire on actor Tiger Shroff’s car in Mumbai on 18 October. As The Indian Idiot reported earlier, 11 accused in that case have been re-arrested under the stringent MCOCA law.

The alleged threat comes while Khurrana’s spy comedy Udta Teer, also starring Sara Ali Khan, is running in theatres. The film earned ₹19.45 crore nett in India over its opening weekend.