Interview with Lawrence Bishnoi: Cancellation report raises suspicions of link between police, gangster: HC

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has said that a cancellation report filed by police against Lawrence Bishnoi raises suspicion of nexus and criminal conspiracy between police officials and the gangster. The court ordered further probe into a first information report (FIR) registered to probe Bishnoi’s interview through a private channel in 2023 while he was in jail.

“Police officials allowed the criminal to use electronic devices 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 . The involvement of law enforcement officials may give the impression that the criminal or his associates have received illegal gratification and may constitute an offense under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Therefore, the matter requires further investigation,” the bench chaired by Justice Anupinder Singh Grewal observed while constituting a new Special Investigation Team (SIT).

The new SIT will be headed by Prabodh Kumar, special DGP of the Punjab State Human Rights Commission, who also headed the investigation team earlier. Other members include Nageshwar Rao, ADGP (provisioning) and Nilabh Kishore, ADGP (STF). The SIT should further investigate criminal conspiracy, sedition, forgery, offenses under the Prevention of Corruption Act, the Information Technology Act and also under other offences. The report will be requested within six weeks.

The SIT had found that Bishnoi’s interview, broadcast on a private channel, was conducted through video conference when he was in the custody of the Kharar CIA on September 3 and 4, 2022.

Two interviews with the gangster were aired on March 14 and 17, 2023, while he was in Bathinda jail.

On October 9, the police dropped six charges mentioned in the FIR and filed a chargesheet for only one offense of criminal intimidation against the gangster.

When the court came to know of the development, it stayed the court proceedings on October 16. The FIR registered on January 5 included seven offences, 384 (extortion), 201 (concealment of evidence), 202 (intentionally withholding information about an offence). , 506 (criminal intimidation), 116 (incitement to commit offense punishable with imprisonment) and 120-b (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and 52-A (1) of the Prisons (Punjab Amendment) Act, 2011 .

The final report filed in a Mohali court on October 9 contains only one section, 506 of the IPC (criminal intimidation), and only against Bishnoi, who was originally named in the FIR.

The court said the SIT was able to establish that the interview was conducted when Bishnoi was in the custody of the Kharar CIA “in the presence of senior officers of the Punjab Police”. “The office of the officer in charge of the police station was used as a studio to conduct the interrogation. The official Wi-Fi on the premises of the CIA personnel was provided for conducting the interview, which is a reference to the criminal conspiracy,” the court noted, adding that the SIT findings were that “roznamcha” was also forged and was made up.