Have Formed Panel To Probe Into Lawrence Bishnoi's Jail Interviews, Punjab Govt Informs High Court

The submission was made before the bench of Chief Justice Ravi Shankar Jha and Justice Arun Palli which was dealing with a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) plea filed before it seeking a probe into the incident by a central Agency.

Essentially, the Petitioner (Akash Manocha) had moved the court inter alia seeking directions to a central agency to inquire and register an FIR against the person responsible for conducting Bishnoi's interview from the jail premises, who has more than 30 cases of murder, extortion and ransom in his name.

On Friday, when confronted with the fact that the State has already constituted a Committee under the ADGP (Jails) to look into the matter, the counsel for the petitioner, Gourave Bhayyia Gilhotra submitted that the petitioner would approach the Committee regarding his grievance.

To this, the Additional Advocate General, Punjab, submitted that in case the petitioner does so, the authority shall look into the matter and take a decision thereon, in accordance with law.

Taking the statements of counsel for the parties on record, the petition was disposed of.

Earlier, on March 20, a plea moved before the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking a probe into the recent News Channel interview of alleged gangster Lawrence Bishnoi was dismissed as withdrawn.

For the uninitiated, recently two interviews of Bishnoi, purportedly recorded over a Video call, were aired by a private TV channel. The interviews featuring Bishnoi, who is presently being held in the high-security Bathinda jail, sparked controversy regarding use of mobile phones by inmates inside the jail.

However, Punjab DGP Gaurav Yadav, in an official statement said that the interviews in question were not recorded inside any of the state's jails.

In his interviews, among other things, Bishnoi claimed that he had a prior idea about the plan to assassinate Singer Sidhu Moosewala. He also threatened to kill Bollywood actor Salman Khan.

Case title - Akash Manocha vs. Union of India and others

Case Citation:

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