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Bishnoi’s jail interviews: Need more time to complete probe, Punjab Police tells HC
The special investigation team (SIT) of Punjab Police has told the Punjab and Haryana high court that it has made “substantial progress” in the probe into two first information reports (FIRs) registered in connection with interviews of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi by a private news channel while he was in jail
Chandigarh : The special investigation team (SIT) of Punjab Police has told the Punjab and Haryana high court that it has made “substantial progress” in the probe into two first information reports (FIRs) registered in connection with interviews of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi by a private news channel while he was in jail.
The SIT headed by special DGP (human rights) Prabodh Kumar submitted two sealed cover reports on the progress of the probe before the bench of justice Anupinder Singh Grewal and justice Kirti Singh.
Kumar, who appeared through video-conferencing, told the high court that the SIT needs three more months to complete the probe in one case. In the second first information report (FIR), he told the court that there is a legal impediment regarding the territorial jurisdiction.
The contents of the sealed cover reports have not been made public.
The court had taken a serious view of the two interviews conducted with the gangster by a private channel while he was in custody. It initiated suo motu proceedings in November 2023 and sought details of action taken following the interviews.
In the interviews, the gangster had claimed that he was not involved in the murder of singer Sidhu Moosewala, who was killed in 2022. He had also hinted at taking revenge from actor Salman Khan for allegedly killing animals.
The interviews were telecast on March 14 and March 17, 2023. At the time of the telecast, Bishnoi was in the Bathinda jail.
The court had ordered registration of criminal cases in December 2023 after a two-member committee formed in March 2023, comprising a special DGP (STF) and an additional director general of police (prisons) failed to definitively determine whether the interviews took place in Punjab or elsewhere.
The committee had come to the conclusion that “it is highly improbable that interviews had taken place either in judicial custody or in police custody” in Punjab. But it had not reached a “definite conclusion”.
The court will resume hearing in this case on August 7.
