Disclose basis for claim that Lawrence Bishnoi interview not conducted in Punjab: HC to DGP

The Punjab and Haryana high court (HC) has directed the Punjab director general of police (DGP) to disclose the basis for his statement in March 2023 that gangster Lawrence Bishnoi’s interviews from jail were not conducted within Punjab.
The HC bench of justice Anupinder Singh Grewal and justice Lapita Banerji also questioned the state police for making juniors officers “scapegoats” in the controversy instead of taking action against senior officers.
“The fact that the interview had been conducted within the premises of CIA Staff, Kharar, SAS Nagar, makes it even worse as it appears to have been conducted in connivance with police officers. Therefore, we direct the Punjab DGP to disclose on affidavit the basis on which such a statement was made during a press conference,” the court said while deferring the matter to November 19.
The controversy is about two interviews of the gangster telecast on March 14 and March 17, 2023, when he was in Bathinda jail. The Punjab Police had initially denied that these interviews took place within the state. Later, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) found that one of the interviews was conducted at the Punjab Police facility in Kharar on the intervening night of September 3 and 4 in 2022 and the second interview was conducted in Rajasthan. The FIR in the second interview’s case has now been transferred to Rajasthan.
The HC was hearing a suo motu plea initiated in September 2023, observing that such interviews tend to glorify crime and criminals and could have an adverse effect on impressionable minds.
In the interviews, the gangster had claimed that he was not involved in the gruesome and broad daylight murder of prominent Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala, who was killed in 2022. He had also hinted at taking revenge from actor Salman Khan for allegedly hunting blackbucks in Rajasthan in 1998.
During the hearing, Punjab government had submitted that seven Punjab police officers have been placed under suspension and departmental proceedings have been initiated against eight. Inspector Shiv Kumar, the then in-charge of CIA Kharar, who had been given extension in services, has been terminated.
However, the court observed that it appears that besides two gazetted officers, only officers of head constable, assistant sub inspector and sub inspector ranks, have been placed under suspension.
On August 7, the court had specifically directed that action should be taken against the senior officers who had facilitated the interview, and the lower-level officers should not be made scapegoats. It added that it appears that no action was taken against the senior officers.
The court also questioned why the state has not responded to queries such as why Bishnoi had been kept at the Kharar facility for a long period of time, and whether the repeated remands to keep him there was a “deliberate attempt” to keep him at the same station. Explanation was also sought as to why Shiv Kumar was given an extension and posted there, the court recorded, asking the DGP to file his affidavit on these issues.