Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana High Court has stayed ongoing proceedings in a Mohali court hearing a case involving multiple TV interviews gangster Lawrence Bishnoi gave from behind bars.
Making scathing observations about the Punjab police for showing a “tearing hurry” in filing a ‘cancellation report’, in which it cleared Bishnoi of all charges except one, a division bench of justices Anupinder Singh Grewal and Lapita Banerji Wednesday asked the special investigation team (SIT) probing the matter to furnish a report containing its findings to the high court, the government of Haryana and the Centre.
The case has been listed for hearing next on 28 October.
The observations came a day after Punjab government assured the bench of action against officers who allowed Bishnoi to appear for an interview with a TV channel allegedly from a jail in Rajasthan in March 2023.
On Wednesday, the high court remarked that the SIT submitted a ‘cancellation report’ before the Mohali court, but failed to present the same before the division bench when the matter came up for hearing on 15 October.
In its ‘cancellation report’ submitted to the trial court in Mohali on 9 October, the SIT dropped six of seven charges against Bishnoi in this case, holding him responsible only for criminal intimidation, a bailable non-cognizable offence. In this case, the FIR against Bishnoi was lodged at the Crime Branch in Mohali on 5 January at the high court’s direction.
He was booked under IPC sections 384 (extortion), 201 (concealment of evidence), 202 (intentionally withholding information about an offence), 116 (abatement of offence), 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 506 (criminal intimidation, besides 52(a) of the Prisons Act. All the charges have been dropped by the SIT, with the exception of section 506 of the IPC.
The developments come at a time when Bishnoi and his gang are under increased scrutiny following the murder of former Maharashtra minister Baba Siddique—for which a gang member claimed responsibility.
Bishnoi is currently lodged at Sabarmati jail in Gujarat and cannot be taken out of the prison for any purpose, owing to an order under Section 268 of the CrPC issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in August 2023.
Asked to comment, Advocate General of Punjab Gurminder Singh told ThePrint Wednesday that the state government is committed to initiate departmental action against erring officers based on the SIT’s findings. “The SIT has submitted an independent report to the JMIC on the criminal side,” said Singh.
What Mohali court & HC said
The order in which the court of Manpreet Kaur (JMIC, SAS Nagar) accepted the ‘cancellation report’ submitted by the SIT was uploaded on the court’s website Tuesday evening. A copy of the order was shared on ‘X’ by Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia, who pulled up the Punjab police for ‘giving Bishnoi a clean chit’ in this case.
🚨Big Breaking: ❗️❗️
🔺Punjab Govt – Gangster nexus exposed❗️@iSidhuMooseWala and@BabaSiddique prime murder accused #dreadedgangster LAWRENCE BISHNOI Given clean chit by @BhagwantMann govt. #punjabpolice under watchful eye and control of chief minster / home minister… pic.twitter.com/TbktKyejL6
— Bikram Singh Majithia (@bsmajithia) October 15, 2024
Preponing the hearing, listed for 28 October, Justice Grewal said in his order Wednesday that when the matter came up for hearing the previous day, the head of the SIT filed an affidavit containing a note detailing “misconduct, negligence and dereliction of duty by the concerned officers”.
“It has now come to our notice that a cancellation report has also been filed before the JMIC (Judicial Magistrate First Class), SAS Nagar on 9.10.2024. However, it is perplexing to know that the said report was not furnished to this court on 15.10.2024 when the matter had come up for hearing,” it said.
The order went on to add that the “counsel for the state of Punjab has not been able to provide any satisfactory explanation with regard to the tearing hurry in filing the cancellation report before JMIC, SAS Nagar”.
“He prays for time to seek necessary instructions on the issue. We, therefore direct the head of the SIT to file a copy of the investigation report before this court forthwith with a copy of the same to be furnished to the additional solicitor general of India, amicus curiae (friend of the court) and counsels for the states of Punjab and Haryana,” read the order.
Bishnoi TV interviews probe
Interviews of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi were aired by a private TV News channel on 14 and 17 March 2023. Brushing aside criticism from the Opposition at the time, the Punjab government said then that the interview was conducted when Bishnoi was in the custody of the Rajasthan police.
But in November last year, a single-judge bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court took suo motu cognizance of the widespread usage of mobile phones by inmates lodged in the state’s prisons, and sought details of steps taken by the Punjab government to address the issue.
The matter was transferred to the division bench of justices Grewal and Banerji, which directed the Punjab DGP to register cases with regard to both interviews. It also ordered the formation of an SIT led by IPS officer Prabodh Kumar, DGP (Punjab State Human Rights Commission).
The SIT has since submitted multiple reports before the high court.
In July, the SIT told the court that one of the interviews was conducted at a Punjab police facility in Kharar on the intervening nights of 3 and 4 September, 2022, when Bishnoi was in police custody and the second interview was conducted while he was in Rajasthan.
The high court also sought details of instances of gang violence reported following the telecast of the interview. In an affidavit filed last month, DGP Gaurav Yadav admitted that there was a slight increase in the number of extortion calls reported in Punjab following the telecast. The high court is also monitoring the role of nearly 10 police personnel, including the then Mohali SSP Vivek Sheel Soni, in allegedly facilitating the interview.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)