Ranvir Shorey Gets Death Threats After CJP Protest Remark

Mumbai, October 13: Actor Ranvir Shorey says he has received death threats by email after criticising a protest by the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), and has now filed an official complaint with the Mumbai Police.

The episode began as a comment on a street protest. Within days, it has become a case that touches on online abuse, the limits of political dissent and a bitter national argument over how India’s voter lists are being revised.

The threats

Shorey shared screenshots of the emails on X on Monday. At least one was sent by someone using the name Raj Parihar. It was full of abuse and threatened an attack on the actor. The name may well be false, and nothing so far shows who actually sent the messages.

On Tuesday, he posted that the official complaint had been filed, that it was now up to the Mumbai Police, and thanked those who had reached out with concern. He had earlier approached the cyber police. The Mumbai Police responded to his post publicly and asked him to share his contact details by direct message, and Shorey thanked them for acting quickly. He says he has given the authorities the material he has to help identify those responsible.

Police have not yet said whether a formal case has been registered or what provisions have been applied. Threats of this kind are typically dealt with under criminal intimidation provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and, where electronic messages are involved, the Information Technology Act.

What Shorey said

Shorey’s remarks were aimed at the CJP’s October 10 demonstration at Jantar Mantar in Delhi. His argument was about method, not about the cause. “Show your numbers in Parliament and the ballot, not the streets,” he wrote, adding that anyone who finds those routes unjust should go to the courts, which he called the democratic way.

It is a view many people share, and many reject. Supporters of street protest point to the long Indian tradition of agitation outside institutions. Critics of it argue that elected bodies and courts are the proper places to settle disputes. Neither side, however, gives anyone a licence to threaten violence, and that is the point at the centre of Shorey’s complaint.

Who the CJP are, and what they want

The Cockroach Janata Party began as satire. A political communications strategist, Abhijeet Dipke, launched it online on May 16 this year as a parody of the political establishment. Its name is a play on the ruling BJP’s, and also a reference to a controversial remark made earlier in May. Its official X account was withheld in India within days, and it came back almost at once under a new handle.

Since then it has grown into a youth-led protest movement. The October 10 demonstration demanded the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged flaws in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Analysts describe its core demands as Kumar’s exit and a serious overhaul of the SIR process, which has raised constitutional and legal questions.

A charged moment

The protests have been growing. Reports say security forces clamped down on demonstrations in the capital over the weekend and detained young people, opposition politicians, YouTubers, lawyers and some journalists. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi defended India as the “mother of democracy” as pressure over the issue intensified. Earlier the same day, Union Minister Piyush Goyal accused the Congress of compromising the Election Commission in the past.

Against that backdrop, any public figure who comments on the CJP’s methods is likely to attract a strong response. Shorey’s case is a reminder of how quickly an opinion on social media can be met with abuse and threats, whichever side one is on.

What happens next

The immediate question is whether the police can trace the sender. If the emails came through anonymous accounts or masked servers, the investigation could take time. Shorey, for his part, has chosen the formal route, a police complaint rather than a public fight.

On the work front, he is set to appear in the sequel to the 2006 cult comedy Khosla Ka Ghosla, scheduled to release on March 5, 2027.