RTI Data Contradicts Panjab DGP's Claims about Bishnoi's Jail Interview

Lawrence Bishnoi is an incarcerated Indian gangster who claimed to have plotted from jail the popular Panjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala’s assassination in May 2022. In March 2023, he gave two interviews to a popular Hindi television channel from a Bathinda jail, confirming that Goldy Brar – a gangster in Canada – was behind Moosewala’s murder. The interviews sparked a wave of concern around the use of mobile phones by prisoners and the rights of news channels to interview prisoners. At that time, the Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav made a statement regarding the Bathinda jail’s security measures. He claimed that a high-security dead zone had been established in the prison, and thus no mobile phones were recovered from the inmates. This dead zone was said to be comprehensively covered by jammers, rendering mobile phone usage impossible. Recent information obtained through the Right to Information (RTI) Act says 48 phones were seized from prisoners at the jail from March 2022 to March 2023. The information contradicts the claims made by DGP Yadav to refute the location of the Bishnoi interview. These discrepancies have raised concerns not only about the security of correctional facilities but also about the effectiveness of measures in place to prevent unauthorized communication. The ability of inmates to access and use mobile phones, despite security protocols and dead zones, underscores the need for a comprehensive and robust strategy to address the issue of unauthorized communication within jails.