Lawrence Bishnoi's latest video with Haryana's Monu Manesar not recorded from Punjab jail: IG
Chandigarh, September 18
Even as a police inquiry into two media interviews given by gangster Lawrence Bishnoi in March this year is still going on, the Jail Department today claimed that a fresh video of the gangster talking to Monu Manesar through a mobile phone that went viral on social media on Sunday was not shot in a Punjab jail. It claimed that the video was two-year old.
A government spokesperson, quoting an inquiry report by an IG rank official of the Jail Department, has denied media reports that the video was shot in the state prisons and termed the allegations misleading and baseless.
The spokesperson said a news channel flashed a video on September 17 in which gangster Lawrence Bishnoi was seen speaking to Monu Manesar through a WhatsApp video call. Monu Manesar is one of the prime accused in creating disturbance and inciting violence at Nuh district of Haryana. In the video, another person was seen sitting in an office chair with Bishnoi.
He said the video was uploaded on social media and it was alleged that Bishnoi was using a mobile phone while in custody in Bathinda jail. The inquiry was entrusted to Inspector General of Prisons, Punjab, who probed this matter and found that the person, sitting with Bishnoi in the video, was identified as Rajkumar alias Raju Bishodhi. Rajkumar had been lodged at Muktsar jail for 28 days from January 25, 2021.
As per official record, Bishnoi stayed in Central Jail, Faridkot, till 2018 as he was handed over to some other state’s police on January 4, 2018.
He stayed in the prisons of other states and was brought to Central Jail, Bathinda, on September 24, 2022, and was again handed over to the Gujarat Police on August 24, 2023.
The spokesperson said the IG, Prisons, denied the allegations that the video was made in any prison of Punjab as both Bishnoi and Raju Bishodhi never stayed together in the state.
