Govt protecting Lawrence Bishnoi, claims Moose Wala’s father after his video from jail goes viral

After a video of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi allegedly talking on a video call from a Gujarat jail went viral on social media, slain Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala’s father Balkaur Singh alleged that the governments are protecting Bishnoi, and he is continuously running illegal activity from the jail through his network as police failed to break it.

On May 29, 2022, six shooters shot dead Moose Wala when he along with his cousin and friend was driving in a jeep to Jawaharke village in Mansa, 10 km away from the singer’s native village Moosa. Bishnoi is among the main conspirators of Moose Wala’s killing.

Singh has claimed that the government is protecting Bishnoi inside the jails, and he is making threats on phones and running his business from the jail barracks. “The Centre and the Punjab government have failed to break Bishnoi’s network and have not exposed those who plotted the murder of Moose Wala,” he said.

In the viral video, which HT couldn’t verify independently, Bishnoi is seen talking to Shahzad Bhatti, a notorious criminal in Pakistani, on a video call from a jail in Gujarat and wishing him Eid.

In March 2023, Bishnoi had given two interviews over a video call while being in judicial custody. In an hour-long interview, Bishnoi admitted to his role as a key conspirator in the Moose Wala killing. However, Punjab police claimed that interviews were not conducted in Punjab jails.

An application was moved by the prosecution agency in Mansa trial court for calling the status report regarding the evidence of videos of Bishnoi with news channel as a confession of conspirators regarding the conspiracy of murder of Moose Wala. The matter is pending in court.

“This is not the first time; Bishnoi is continuously getting all the facilities in the jail. Bishnoi gave two interviews in March 2023 to a news channel in which he made several claims regarding the murder of my son. We are pursuing this in the court to make videos of Bishnoi with the news channel as a piece of evidence as a confession regarding the conspiracy of murder of Moose Wala. Now, we will also seek investigation into recent video of Bishnoi,” he said.

“But this raises serious questions on the jail department and the governments. How were these interviews conducted and how does Bishnoi still have access to phones? I am tired of making demands from the Punjab and central governments regarding this. But it is concerning how easily he has access to his network. He is making threatening calls to people and demanding extortion without any interruption,” he said.

He said that the governments did not do anything even on the interviews so far and now the video of Bishnoi talking on a video call from a Gujarat jail has gone viral, from which it seems that the authorities of the jails in the country do not intend to break the network of gangsters.

He said, “Instead of punishing Bishnoi, the governments are providing protection to him and deliberately keeping him in Gujarat jail. Even the jail authorities have continuously recovered phones from other accused in Moose Wala murder case lodged in Punjab jails.”