Lawrence Bishnoi interviews: HC seeks transcript of DGP’s statement

The Punjab and Haryana high court has directed the state government to bring on record the statement of the director general of police (DGP) made in 2023, wherein he had stated that gangster Lawrence Bishnoi’s interview did not take place in Punjab jail.

Directions were passed by the high court bench of justice Anupinder Singh Grewal and justice Sudeepti Sharma during the resumed hearing of a suo motu plea initiated in 2023.

The suo motu proceedings were initiated observing that such interviews tend to glorify crime and criminals and could have an adverse effect on impressionable minds. Later, the interviews were deleted but the police had told the court that these interviews garnered 12 million views on YouTube.

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, 2022, and the second interview was conducted in Rajasthan. The FIR in the second interview’s case has now been transferred to Rajasthan.

In the interviews, the gangster 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 on actor Salman Khan for allegedly hunting blackbucks in Rajasthan in 1998.

Retd HC judge to conduct probe

against officers: Punjab tells court

During the hearing, the state’s advocate general Gurminder Singh said that a retired high court judge had been appointed to conduct an inquiry into the role of officers. He also said that the government was willing to reconsider the matter and “suggestions would be placed with regard to the list of names of the retired high court judges before this court on the next date of hearing”.

The advocate general assured the court that strict action would be taken against the delinquent officers and disciplinary proceedings had been initiated against the officers. The court was also told that the competent authority for initiating action against the officers of DSP rank and above was the department of home affairs and justice.

The court questioned the state police on taking action against only the lower rank officers and orally observed why action was not taken against the then Mohali senior superintendent of police (SSP).

On the last date of the hearing on October 29, the court questioned the state police for making junior 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, makes it even worse as it appears to have been conducted in connivance with police officers,” the bench had observed on October 29 in the backdrop of the Punjab government statement 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 an extension in services, has been terminated, the government had told the court. However, it had come to light that no action had been taken against two gazetted officers—the then SSP and a DSP-level officer.

While posting the matter for hearing on December 2, the bench directed the Punjab principal secretary, department of home affairs and justice, to be present before the bench on the next date of hearing.