Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini on Thursday admitted before the Legislative Assembly that extortion cases in the state have risen by 17 per cent.Replying to a Calling Attention Motion on the deteriorating law and order situation, the Chief Minister said that 296 extortion incidents had been reported in the state up to July 2026, compared with 253 during the corresponding period last year.“This increase is primarily attributable to the anonymous nature of overseas callers, who use digital applications and other technologies to conceal their identity and location,” the Chief Minister said.Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) MLAs Aditya Devi Lal and Arjun Chautala had moved the Calling Attention Motion.The Chief Minister told the House that Haryana’s Special Task Force (STF) and Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) were carrying out intelligence-based and targeted operations against organised crime, gangsters, illegal weapons and criminals involved in serious and terror-related cases.The Haryana Police have arrested 3,210 gang members during 2024, 2025 and up to July 2026. During 2025-26, 19 gangsters were deported from foreign countries and 12 were detained abroad. Further, 144 Look Out Circulars (LOCs) and 50 Red Corner Notices (RCNs) were issued, while 53 Interpol references were made.“Extortion cases are taken seriously. All these are shared with the STF and maintained in a central database, enabling linkage of apparently separate calls to the same gang. Each case is being monitored by senior officers. Identification of accused persons and their associates, analysis of technical and financial evidence, investigation of criminal networks, and inter-district as well as interstate police coordination, wherever required, are being undertaken,” the Chief Minister said.Haryana Police have also developed the “Abhedya” app, which blocks calls from dubious and unknown numbers.‘Put up the photograph of Sajjan Kumar outside your house’Taking on the Opposition, the Chief Minister said, “Opposition members have come to the House dressed in black today, but the people of Haryana are not looking at their black clothes; rather, they are watching their dark deeds.”Referring to the 1984 riots, Saini said, “People had tyres placed around their necks and were burnt alive, and such atrocities were committed that many were forced to cut their hair to save their lives.”He said the Congress never apologised for the 1984 riots and that today, a person associated with that period — Sajjan Kumar — was being described as a role model. He added that Rahul Gandhi and former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda should put up a large photograph of the person whom the Congress describes as its role model, both inside and outside their homes.Recalling major crime incidents during the INLD rule from 1999 to 2005, he said that in August 2001, former MLA Relu Ram Punia and seven members of his family were brutally murdered in Hisar. Referring to the Kandela incident of May 2002, the Chief Minister asked who had ordered firing on farmers. He also recalled that five Dalit youths were beaten to death by a mob near a police post at Dulina in Jhajjar during the same period.On the JBT teachers’ recruitment scam, the Chief Minister said selection lists in the recruitment of over 3,000 JBT teachers were manipulated, deserving candidates were deprived of their rights, and attempts were made to turn government jobs into an instrument of political patronage.He also recalled how, during Hooda’s regime, a Valmiki settlement in Gohana was set ablaze in 2005, Manoj and Babli were murdered in 2007, an international kidney racket was uncovered in Gurugram in 2008, Dalit homes were targeted in Mirchpur in 2010, and inmates of the Apna Ghar shelter home were sexually abused in 2012.INLD questions why data on drug peddling is not sharedWhile asking his supplementary question, Aditya Devi Lal remarked that the Chief Minister did not utter a single word about the rising menace of drug abuse.“Does the issue of drugs not fall under the purview of law and order? Today, there is not a single village or city left in the state where ‘chitta’ (synthetic drugs) is not being sold,” he said.MLA Arjun Chautala remarked that while the Chief Minister detailed events from 2001 to 2005, he failed to mention that the BJP had extended unconditional support to the INLD government at that time.“Back then, you appreciated Chautala sahib’s administration,” he said.He also accused the Chief Minister of reading out a speech generated using ChatGPT.