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Lawrence Bishnoi used Punjab Police station as TV studio for interview, given access to Wi-Fi: High court
The Punjab and Haryana high court slammed Punjab Police officers over gangster Lawrence Bishnoi's interview to a TV news channel.
The Punjab and Haryana high court has come down heavily on Punjab Police officers and observed that they “allowed” gangster Lawrence Bishnoi to use a senior’s office at a police station as studio for his TV interview.
The Punjab and Haryana high court directed to constitute a new special investigation team (SIT), to carry out further probe into the nexus and conspiracy between cops and the Lawrence Bishnoi.
A division bench of Justices Anupinder Singh Grewal and Lapita Banerji passed the order after Special DGP (Punjab State Human Rights Commission) Prabodh Kumar submitted that an SIT that he was heading did not have the mandate to look into the other offences, The Indian Express reported.
Justices Anupinder Singh Grewal and Lapita Banerji made the remark while hearing a suo motu matter related to inmates' use of mobile phones within jail premises.
“The police officers allowed the criminal to use electronic device and provided a studio like facility to conduct the interview which tends to glorify crime with the potential to facilitate other crimes including extortion by the criminal and his associates. Involvement of the police officers may suggest receipt of illegal gratification from the criminal or his associates and constitute offences under Prevention of Corruption Act. Therefore, the case requires further investigation,” Bar and Bench quoted the court as saying.
The bench made these remarks while examining the SIT's decision to submit a cancellation report in a case linked to Lawrence Bishnoi's interview.
Lawrence Bishnoi, a suspect in the murder of Punjabi singer Shubdeep Singh Sidhu, also known as Sidhu Moosewala, had his interview aired by a news channel in March 2023. In his conversation with ABP News, Lawrence Bishnoi knew about the murder plot.
The bench observed that the SIT had successfully identified that the interview was conducted within the CIA office premises at Kharar. Additionally, the SIT had pinpointed instances of misconduct and negligence by police officers. However, a cancellation report was submitted to the judicial magistrate first class, stating that, apart from the offense under Section 506 of the IPC, the other charges listed in the FIR were not substantiated, The Indian Express reported
“The office of the Officer Incharge of the Police Station was used as a studio to conduct the interview. The official Wi-Fi at the premises of the CIA staff had been provided for conducting the interview which is a pointer towards the criminal conspiracy. The report indicates that roznamcha was also forged and fabricated. The matter calls for further investigation as to for what consideration this was done and the various aspects towards offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act besides other offences need to be examined,” the court said.
Special DGP, Punjab state human rights commission, Prabodh Kumar told the court that the SIT did not have the mandate to look into other offences including those under the Prevention of Corruption Act However, the court did not agree with this, and ordered a further probe into the matter.
