The police in Delhi and the neighbouring township of Noida are investigating at least four complaints filed by journalists who say they have received death threats on the social messaging platform WhatsApp over the past two weeks. One journalist even received a phone call threatening him after he first got three threats via WhatsApp.

Delhi Police spokesperson Madhur Verma said that the police had lodged three complaints and registered a First Information Report in connection with one of them. Superintendent of Police (Noida City) Arun Kumar Singh said that one complaint was being investigated by the force’s cyber cell. The police are yet to identify any people in connection with these threats.

The threat messages are virtually identical, referring to journalist Gauri Lankesh, who was murdered in Bengaluru by unidentified assailants on September 5, and warning that journalists critical of the Modi government, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh “will not be spared” and will “be removed”.