Chandigarh, March 20 — The Punjab Police Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Wednesday submitted a fresh status report to the Punjab and Haryana High Court on its probe into the jail interviews of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, telecast by a private channel in March 2023, and requested more time to complete the investigation.
The SIT, led by IPS (retd) Prabodh Kumar, filed the report in a sealed cover, claiming “significant progress” in the investigation and requested more time to complete the probe.
After reviewing the report, the Punjab and Haryana High Court bench of Justice Anupinder Singh Grewal and Justice Deepak Manchanda ordered it resealed and deferred the hearing to March 27. The report’s contents were not discussed in court.
The court is hearing a suo motu plea initiated in 2023, observing that such interviews could glorify crime and negatively influence impressionable minds. While the interviews were later deleted, police informed the court that they had already garnered 12 million views on YouTube.
The controversy stems from two interviews aired on March 14 and 17, 2023, when Bishnoi was in Bathinda jail. The Punjab Police initially denied that the interviews took place in the state. However, the SIT later revealed that one was conducted at a Punjab Police facility in Kharar on the intervening night of September 3 and 4, 2022, while the second was filmed in Rajasthan. The FIR related to the Rajasthan interview has since been transferred to that state.
In the interviews, Bishnoi denied involvement in the 2022 murder of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala and hinted at seeking revenge against actor Salman Khan for allegedly hunting blackbucks in Rajasthan in 1998.
Meanwhile, Punjab Deputy Inspector General (Prisons) Surinder Singh submitted a status report on jail infrastructure upgrades, which the court is monitoring following the controversy. The report stated that AI-based CCTV surveillance has been installed in eight jails, while X-ray baggage scanners and body-worn cameras will be operational by March 31. The AI-based CCTV system in six more jails and cameras in all high-security zones will be in place by May 2.
The court also sought a report on the installation of iron nylon mesh on the boundary walls of vulnerable jails and areas prone to external objects being thrown into the premises.
