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Punjab replaces ADGP Prisons amid row over Lawrence Bishnoi interviews
A news channel had aired Bishnoi’s interviews on March 14 and 17 while he was lodged in the Bathinda central jail; this is the fourth ADGP posting in the Punjab prisons dept under the Bhagwant Mann govt
The Punjab government on Saturday appointed ADGP Arun Pal Singh, a 1997-cadre IPS officer, as ADGP Prisons by replacing ADGP B Chandra Shekhar.
This is the fourth ADGP posting in the prisons department under the Bhagwant Mann government. Earlier, this government had picked Varinder Kumar as ADGP Prisons in June 2022, but when was he was moved as Vigilance Bureau chief director, Harpreet Sidhu took up the position.
Later, Sidhu, too, was shifted as ADGP Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) on central deputation, following which Chandra Shekhar had filled the post.
Sidhu was handling the role of ADGP Special Task Force (STF) against drugs when he was given the additional charge of ADGP Prisons in June last year.
Shekhar’s ouster from the prisons department comes two days after chief minister Bhagwant Mann ordered a probe into gangster Lawrence Bishnoi’s two back-to-back interviews from behind the bars.
Even as the prisons department and Punjab Police have denied that these interviews took place in Punjab, the state government had set up a probe panel, led by STF chief and special DGP Kuldeep Singh, and also comprising Shekhar.
The committee will hand over its investigation report in the next 15 days.
A private news channel had aired Bishnoi’s first interview on March 14 and the second on March 17 while he was lodged in the Bathinda central jail.
The Punjab government has claimed that the interviews were not conducted at any of the jails in the state but in Rajasthan, where he was taken on production warrant in a case in February. However, even the Jaipur police denied that Bishnoi could have given any interview under its tight security.
Bishnoi was taken on a production warrant from Bathinda jail to Rajasthan on February 15 in connection with an extortion case. He was brought back to Bathinda on March 10.
The interviews had invited flak from the opposition parties who demanded a thorough probe and raised questions on how the gangster managed to use a mobile phone and internet inside the prison.
A dreaded gangster and main conspirator of singer Shubhdeep Singh aka Sidhu Moose Wala’s killing, Bishnoi has been in the custody of Punjab Police since June 2022 when he was brought here from Delhi’s Tihar Jail on production warrant.
He is wanted in more than 50 cases of murder, attempt of murder, dacoity and abduction in different states across north India.
In the two interviews, Bishnoi had admitted to his role of a key conspirator in the Moose Wala killing. The gangster was heard saying that he had arranged everything according to the plan, which was hatched along with another gangster Satinderjit Singh, alias Goldy Brar. Brar, who is based in Canada, has also been booked in the murder case.
When the interviewer asked Bishnoi how he managed to procure a phone for the video interview from inside a jail, the gangster said that he knew how to exploit loopholes in the prisons department.
The Punjab prisons department had subsequently issued a clarification that the video was not recorded in any of Punjab jails.
“It is further clarified that this prisoner is at present confined in a high security zone of Bathinda jail where strict surveillance is kept over his activities 24x7. If anyone is caught spreading fake news maligning the image of the Punjab prisons department, action shall be initiated as per the law,” the statement had said.
