Author Hardeep Singh 

CHANDIGARH The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government of India-administered Punjab is under fire for concealing truth about two TV interviews of State-sponsored Hindutva terrorist Lawrance Bishnoi, who is main conspirator of assassination of world renowned Punjabi singer Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu aka Sidhu Moosewala, from jail for one and half years.

A special investigation team (SIT) constituted by Punjab and Haryana High court has revealed that the first interview was conducted at the Kharar premises of the CIA staff, followed by another in Rajasthan, exposing lie in the repeated claims of Bhagwant Mann-led state government and Punjab Police that no interview was conducted in Punjab. 

The interviews were telecast by Indian news Channel ABP News in March, 2023, that triggered a big sensation as Bishnoi who is enjoying support of Indian intelligence agencies and Hindu extremist organizations including RSS, is also known as a dreaded gangster in India. 

In the detailed interviews, Bishnoi admitted to his role of a main conspirator in the Moosewala assassination that spread grief across the world. The terrorist is heard saying that he had arranged everything according to the assassination plot, which was hatched along with another gangster Goldy Brar.

The interviews were facilitated by Indian agencies to glorify him, after which he was hailed as “hero” of Hindu community, “patriot” and “Nationalist” by the Hindutva section of Indian society. However, these interviews enraged people of Punjab, especially Sikhs, who lost their popular singer whose songs talked about rights and freedom of Punjab, besides glorifying Sikh freedom fighter. 

The High Court bench comprising Justice Anupinder Singh Grewal and Justice Lapita Banerji constituted the SIT after a two-member high-powered committee constituted by the Punjab Government had claimed that it was “highly improbable” that the interviews were conducted either in jail or police custody in the state. 

Pulling the Mann government, the bench said government’s committee took almost eight months to arrive at an inconclusive finding. “If it was an attempt to hoodwink the court or misdirect the proceedings of the court, it would be a serious matter and would be considered at an appropriate stage,” the Bench asserted.

The CIA (Criminal Investigation Department) staff is a department of Punjab Police. Senior Police officials hosted this interview in Kharar Police Station. 

On March 16, last year, Punjab Police chief Gaurav Yadav categorically denied that the interview of the terrorist to a private news channel was conducted in the state.

The revelation has proved that Mann government and its Police are playing in hands of Hindutva forces and Indian deep State.  

Bishnoi is charged in 71 cases in Punjab and convicted in four matters, including offences under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, Section 302 of the IPC and extortion. 

Reacting to the court revelation, veteran journalist Sukhdev Singh said, “The so-called common man’s government had been trying to conceal the truth. However, the High Court exposed role of Mann government and its Police”. 

In the interviews, Bishnoi was seen to be justifying target killings and his criminal activities, including death threats to a renowned Hind film actor Salman Khan. He was behind the failed plot to assassinate Salman Khan who is a Muslim. In the interviews, he openly spoke against voice of Sikhs for ‘Khalistan’, a sovereign Sikh state. Sikhs and Muslims were his target. 

The ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is under attack from Opposition parties following the revealations. 

Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly, Partap Singh Bajwa of the Congress party, on Wednesday said that after the latest report by the Special Investigation Team (SIT), which said Bishnoi’s interview had been conducted in Punjab, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, who also holds the Home and Jail portfolios, should immediately resign.

“The Aam Aadmi Party-led Punjab government has been lying since March 2023. Now, after this revelation in the High Court, Bhagwant Mann owes an explanation to the people of Punjab, particularly the parents of slain Punjabi singer Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu,” Bajwa added.

Meanwhile, Senior Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) leader Bikram Singh Majithia demanded chief minister Bhagwant Mann be owning moral responsibility for supervising the interview of the dreaded gangster at the Kharar police station besides calling for exemplary punishment for police officers who had facilitated the interview.

In a statement here, Majithia said even though Mann had vehemently denied that Bishnoi’s television interview had not occurred in a jail in Punjab, a report submitted by a SIT formed by the high court to probe the matter had revealed that the interview had occurred at the Kharar police station.

Majithia said it had also come out now that Lawrence Bishnoi’s interview occurred at Kharar when he was under police remand and was being probed with regard to his role in the murder of Sidhu Moosewala by senior police officers under the direct supervision of the chief minister. 

“This could only happen under the patronage of the government and that the chief minister should explain why his government, in the same manner as the AAP government in Delhi, was providing protection to Bishnoi”, said Majithia.

He said, “It is clear that the conspiracy to murder Moosewala was hatched in the Tihar jail in Delhi which is under the control of the AAP government. It is also clear that the chief minister not only withdrew the security cover of Moosewala but also publicized the same. Now it has come to light that Bishnoi’s interview also occurred under the patronage of the AAP government in Punjab”.