BChandigarh: Even as the interview of gangster and one of the key conspirators of singer Sidhu Moosewala’s killing, Larence Bishnoi - who is currently lodged in the Bathinda jail in Punjab - to a TV channel on Tuesday evening went viral, the Punjab government has said that the interview was not recorded inside its Bathinda jail.
Trashing the possibility of the interview given from inside the high security Bathinda jail, the state imprisons department spokesperson held in a statement Tuesday night that the accused was placed in a high security zone from where any phone-call was an impossibility. Action would be initiated as per law if anyone was caught spreading fake news maligning the image of Punjab prisons department, it added.
Even though the said about an hour-long interview having smooth video streaming, had a question to Bishnoi as to how had he got a phone inside the jail for the video interview - to which he said that for, he knew the loopholes in the prisons department - the interview did not have a question as to which jail he was calling from.
Meanwhile, the stance of the state government notwithstanding, it sent the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) into a tizzy as only about two weeks ago, a video clip showing some gangsters associated with Bishnoi as well as Moosewala’s killing, bragging about killing two members of the rival Jaggu Bhagwanpuria’s gang inside the Goindwal jail in Tarn Taran district on February 26, 2023, had gone viral. Five jail officials were arrested in this case.
Who is Lawrence Bishnoi?
Bishnoi who faced about 50 cases of murder, attempt to murder, abduction, dacoity, besides others, in northern states, and who was lodged in Delhi’s Tihar jail in other cases, was brought to Punjab on production warrants by state police in June, last year, in the May 29, 2022, case of Moosewala’s killing.
He was taken to Jaipur central jail (Rajasthan) from Bathinda on February 15, 2023 and brought back on March 10, 2023 in a case registered there in which three gunmen had fired in a Jaipur hotel demanding Rs 1 crore extortion from the hotel owner.
Moosewala shielded killers, alleges Bishnoi
Speaking at length about the reasons behind Moosewala’s murder, Bishnoi claimed in the interview that he was not involved in the singer’s murder adding that it was planned by his Canada-based associate Goldy Brar and his cousin Sachin Bishnoi to avenge the killings of ``his brothers’’ (meaning close friends) Vicky Middukhera and Gurlal Brar.
Bishnoi went on to allege that it was so, as the system failed to do justice in the murders of his friends as the Punjab police was under pressure by Moosewala and the Congress leaders. He further alleged that Moosewala was not a saint as was being portrayed by the media nor had he ever spoken anything against drug menace, Khalistan or Pakistan.
On his threat to Bollywood actor Salman Khan, he held that he had not sent any threat letter to him, though he was very angry with what Khan had done –black bucks’ poaching, which was against Bishnois’ religious beliefs - and yet never apologised to the Bishnoi community.
