The Supreme Court on Friday protected from arrest a private news channel anchor facing a court-monitored SIT probe in a case related to mobile phone interviews of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi from jail aired in March last year.
Bishnoi, who is one of the accused in the 2022 murder of singer Sidhu Moosewala, gave video interviews on mobile phone to the anchor of the news channel. He is also the alleged mastermind of a firing incident outside the Mumbai residence of Bollywood actor Salman Khan.
“The second petitioner shall cooperate with the SIT investigation. We direct that pending further orders from this court, no coercive steps shall be taken against him,” a Bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud said.
However, it noted that irrespective of the journalist’s intention to expose criminals, interviewing inmates posed a serious breach of jail regulations. “At a certain level, perhaps your client seeking the interview may have breached certain regulations of the jail,” the Bench told the petitioner’s counsel as it issued notices to the Punjab Government and IPS officer Prabodh Kumar who headed the special investigation team (SIT) set up by the Punjab and Haryana High Court.