CHANDIGARH: A Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) identified as a key conspirator in connection with a 2023 news interview of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi is likely to lose his job. The Home Department of Punjab Government has recommended dismissal of DSP Gursher Singh based on the findings of a special investigation team (SIT) headed by Special DGP (Human Rights) Pramod Kumar.
The interview which was telecasted in March 2023 was conducted via video conference when Bishnoi was in CIA custody on September 3 and 4, 2022.
Singh was DSP (Investigations) at that time and Bishnoi was brought from Tihar Jail to Kharar CIA in a case related to the murder of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala.
In October the state home department had suspended seven police officers, including two deputy superintendent-rank officers (DSPs) for allegedly facilitating an interview of Bishnoi from the custody of state police.
Thus keeping in view the sensitivity of the case, officers were then suspended included DSPs Gursher Singh Sandhu and Sammer Vaneet besides sub-inspectors Reena, Jagatpal Jangu, Shaganjit Singh and Assistant Sub Inspector Mukhtiar Singh and Head Constable Om Parkash.
In March last year two interviews of Lawrence Bishnoi were aired by a TV channel when he was in the custody of Punjab Police. The interviews coincided with the first death anniversary of singer Sidhu Moosewala. Balkaur Singh Sidhu, father of the deceased singer had then alleged that police were hand in glove with the gangster. Later, the SIT found out his allegations to be true.
On January 5, the SIT probing the case registered cases and charges of extortion, concealment of evidence, intentionally withholding information about an offence, criminal intimidation, abetment of offences that are punishable by imprisonment, criminal conspiracy and Prisons (Punjab Amendment) Act, 2011.
But in its final report submitted in a court in Mohali on October 9, the charges were filed under criminal intimidation against Bishnoi. The Punjab and Haryana High Court had stayed the proceedings the very next day. Bishnoi is an alleged accused in the Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala case and also suspected conspirator in the Baba Siddique murder case in Mumbai.
More than three dozen cases were registered against him in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi. The Canadian Government had also accused him of involvement in last year's killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar murder as an "agent of India."
