Punjab and Haryana High Court orders fresh probe into Lawrence Bishnoi’s 2023 interview case

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has ordered a fresh probe into Lawrence Bishnoi’s interview by a private TV channel in 2023 while he was in Bathinda jail as the cancellation report filed by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in the case raised suspicion of a nexus and criminal conspiracy between cops and the gangster.

"Police officials allowed the criminal to use an 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,"  Justices Anupinder Singh Grewal and Lapita Banerji of the Punjab and Haryana High Court bench observed.

"Involvement of police officials may suggest receipt of illegal gratification from the criminal or his associates and constitute offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Therefore, the case requires further investigation," the bench said.

The court also said, "Why did the DGP state that no interview took place in Punjab's jail, and why was Section 120-B of the Criminal Conspiracy Act not applied to the officers involved?"

However, the SIT admitted that one interview of Bishnoi took place during his custody in Mohali's Kharar, while another was held in Rajasthan.

Pulling up the Punjab government's handling of the issue, the court said among the suspended officials, only two were gazetted officers, and the remaining were junior staff.

Punjab Police had suspended seven personnel, including two deputy superintendent rank officers, in connection with the case.

The high court also expressed concerns over the role of Shiv Kumar, former in-charge of an investigating agency of Punjab Police.

Raising a question on Bishnoi's repeated transfers to the wing's facility in Kharar for remand and interrogation, the court has asked the Punjab government to file additional affidavits on the matter.

"It appears that, besides two gazetted officers, all the remaining officers are of lower rank. We had clearly mentioned in our earlier order that lower-level officers should not be made scapegoats," said the court.