The Supreme Court on Friday directed that no coercive steps be taken against the ABP News journalist, who interviewed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, while he was lodged in jails of Punjab and Rajasthan.
The Bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra passed the order on a petition challenging the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s directions to the SIT headed by Prabohd Kumar IPS, to lodge an FIR in the matter pertaining to the interview, so that an investigation could be conducted as per the provisions of CrPC.
While hearing a suo motu matter against the use of mobile phone in Punjab’s prisons, the High Court constituted a three-member SIT to investigate alleged gangster Lawrence Bishnoi’s TV interview to determine the involvement of the officials.
The High Court had earlier observed that the interview garnered 12 million views on YouTube and wrongly justified targeted killings & criminal activities.
While issuing notice on the writ petition and the special leave petition filed by ABP News Network and journalist Jagvinder Patial, the Apex Court today verbally remarked that while the intention of the journalist was to expose the criminals.
The Bench noted that at a certain level, the journalist may by seeking the interview, but he breached certain regulations of the jail, which was a very serious matter.
Appearing for the petitioners, Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi argued that the interview helped ‘expose the rot’.
He contended that the journalist carried out a sting operation as part of investigative journalism to show how Bishnoi was in touch with gangster Goldy Brar in Canada and was conspiring an attack against Salman Khan in the backdrop of the Black Buck case.
However, the top court of the country expressed apprehensions on whether it could justify the breach of jail restrictions and negate the concerns over security threats in prisons, as raised by the High Court
The fact remained that the journalist gained access to the prison and published an interview from jail, it observed, adding that there were restrictions by the virtue of incarceration.
Rohatgi responded by saying that if the messenger was killed, nobody would be able to expose the rot.
The Bench then sought responses from the States of Punjab and Rajasthan, as well the Union government on the matter.
Rohatgi further urged the need for a protective order for journalist Patial as he was facing life threats in the light of the sting operation. He clarified that Patial has not been arrested yet.
The Apex Court directed Patial to comply with the ongoing SIT probe and clarified that no coercive steps be taken by the authorities against him.
The Court had last month dismissed the petition filed by Lawrence Bishnoi challenging the High Court order for an SIT probe over the TV interview.
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