Lawrence Bishnoi interview: Cancel report raises suspicion of cop-gangster nexus: HC

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

“Police officers allowed the criminal to use an electronic device and provided a studio-like facility to conduct the interview, which tends to glorify the crime with potential facilitation of other crimes, including extortion by the criminal and his accomplices. The participation of police officials may indicate illegal gratification from the criminal or his accomplices and constitute an offense under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Thus, the case requires further investigation,” the bench headed by Justice Anupinder Singh Grewal said while forming a new Special Investigation Team (SIT).

The new SIT has been assigned to head Prabodhu Kumar, Special DGP of the Punjab Human Rights Commission, who also headed the previous investigation team. The other members will be Nageshwar Rao, ADGP (Provision) and Nilabh Kishore, ADGP (STF). The SIT has to conduct further investigation into criminal conspiracy, abetment, forgery, offenses under Prevention of Corruption Act, Information Technology Act and any other offence. The report was submitted within six weeks.

The SIT found that Bishnoi’s interview, which was aired on a private channel, was conducted via video conference while he was in the custody of CIA Harar on September 3-4, 2022.

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

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

When the court found out about the development of events, on October 16, it stopped the court proceedings. On January 5, seven crimes were registered in the FIR: 384 (extortion), 201 (concealment of evidence), 202 (deliberate suppression of information about offenses). , 506 (criminal intimidation), 116 (abetment of offenses 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 the Mohali court on October 9 contains only one section, 506 IPC (criminal intimidation) and only against Bishnoi, which was initially listed in the FIR.

The court said the SIT was able to establish that the interview was conducted when Bishnoi was in the custody of CIA Harar “in the presence of senior officers of the Punjab Police”. “The police station chief’s office was used as a studio for conducting interviews. The official Wi-Fi in the premises of the CIA personnel was provided for conducting the interview, which is an indication of a criminal conspiracy,” the court recorded, adding that the SIT’s findings indicated that the “message” was also falsified and fabricated.