Punjab And Haryana High Court Directs New SIT To Investigate Criminal-Police Nexus

Chandigarh: Directing the Punjab police to constitute a new special investigation team (SIT) to carry out further probe into the nexus between the cops and the gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has observed that the state police officers ``allowed’’ Bishnoi to use a senior’s office at a police station as studio for his TV interview.

A division bench of justices Anupinder Singh Grewal and Lapita Banerji on Tuesday passed the order after special DGP, Punjab state human rights commission, Prabodh Kumar submitted that an SIT that he was heading, did not have the mandate to look into the other offences. The justices made the remark while hearing a suo motu matter related to the inmates’ use of mobile phones within jail premises.

According to media reports, the justices observed: ``The police officers allowed the criminal to use electronic device and provided a studio like facility to conduct the interview which tends to glorify crime with the potential to facilitate other crimes including extortion by the criminal and his associates. Involvement of the police officers may suggest receipt of illegal gratification from the criminal or his associates and constitute offences under Prevention of Corruption Act. Therefore, the case requires further investigation’’.

The bench made these remarks while examining the SIT’s decision to submit a cancellation report in the case linked to Bishnoi’s interview.

For record, Bishnoi, a suspect in the murder of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala, had his interview aired by a news channel in March, 2023, in which he knew about the murder plot.

Observing that the SIT had successfully identified that the interview was conducted within the CIA office at Kharar and pinpointed instances of misconduct and negligence by the police officers, the bench held that the office of the officer incharge of the police station was used as a studio to conduct the interview and that the official wi-fi had been provided for the the interview, was a pointer towards the criminal conspiracy, the news reports said.

The matter calls for further investigation as to for what the consideration this was done and various aspects towards offences under the prevention of corruption act, besides other offences need to be looked into, the court further held, according to the media reports.