New Delhi: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has advised ZEE5 to hold back the release of its docu-series Lawrence of Punjab, based on gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, just three days before its premiere, after warnings from the Punjab Police that the show could disrupt public order.
The issue also reached the Punjab and Haryana High Court, where Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring argued that the series risked glorifying gangster culture and sought a ban.
“Stop selling Punjab’s pain. A line must be drawn. This is the land of Bhagat Singh, of courage, not of guns,” Warring told ThePrint. “On 29 May 2022, when Sidhu Moosewala was killed, something inside Punjab broke, something that had been broken too many times already. Across this land, there are homes where silence is louder than noise: mothers still waiting; fathers carrying losses they cannot explain.”
The Congress leader described the ZEE5 series as a betrayal of every family still mourning a loss, arguing that projecting Bishnoi as a figure of rebellion can never be about storytelling. He criticised what he called selling families’ pain as content.
“This is not politics; it is personal. Not here, not in my Punjab. Our story is of people who endured and chose courage every time. That Punjab I will always stand for,” Warring said.
‘Could wrongly influence youngsters’
During the hearing, Additional Solicitor General Satya Pal Jain and advocate Dheeraj Jain, appearing for the Centre, submitted the ministry’s communication before a bench led by Chief Justice Sheel Nagu. Following the Centre’s advisory, Warring’s counsel, Nikhil Ghai, told the court that their concerns had been addressed, leading to the petition being disposed of.
“During the hearing, we highlighted how past interviews of Bishnoi were later taken down on the court’s order. Also, any escalation in the law and order situation in Punjab, being a border state, can be misused,” Ghai told ThePrint.
The court also noted that such content could encourage criminal behaviour, interfere with ongoing trials, and potentially influence witnesses. It referred to an earlier directive from January that called for identifying and removing online content that glorifies crime or criminals.
“There are 77 cases against Bishnoi in Punjab alone. Any type of glorification of the gangster in the series could potentially threaten witnesses and also influence youngsters in the wrong way,” the counsel said.
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Sidhu Moosewala murder
The trailer of Lawrence of Punjab also gives a glimpse of Moosewala, hinting that the docu-series touches upon his murder as well. Notably, Warring played a key role in Moosewala’s political career.
Ghai underlined that the description by the makers stated that the docu-series explores the “rise of Bishnoi,” which is a way of glorifying the gangster.
He then cited BNS 111, subsection 3, which states that facilitating organised crime can lead to life imprisonment, explaining that anyone and everyone associated with the project could have faced the consequences.
The series, which was scheduled to premiere on April 27, had been described by its makers as an exploration of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi’s rise, framed through the intersections of student politics, music, ideology, and media visibility.
(Edited by Saptak Datta)