JODHPUR: Fearing police encounter during transit for hearing in court, gangster Lawrence Bishnoi has sought refuge from the high court. Currently lodged in Ajmer Central Jail, Bishnoi has moved high court seeking protection citing threat to his life.
Allowing the petition, Justice PS Bhati has directed the public prosecutor to produce the report in the court listing the matter for hearing on February 24. Bishnoi, in a Criminal Miscellaneous petition, has stated that he was not being provided basic amenities and proper food in the jail to live a normal life and he was apprehending that he might be encountered by the police during transit from jail to the court any time.
In his petition, Bishnoi has alleged that since his admission in the jail, he has been constantly subjected to cruelty by the prison authorities as well as unnecessary mental and physical harassment.
“He has been recently beaten black and blue in a high security jail of Ajmer and had to take treatment in the jail’s hospital,” his counsel Naman Mohnot argued, alleging that a senior jail officer has personally threatened him stating that he has been on the hit list of the police department for encounter.
Although, the public prosecutor Gaurav Singh refuted these allegations as baseless stating that the petitioner has no threat to his life whatsoever, yet Bishnoi’s counsel Mohnot argued that even a criminal has some rights as a human being in the constitution, which could not be violated.
Hearing both sides, Justice Bhati directed to produce a report on the matter at the next hearing on February 24.
It may be noted that Bishnoi is a gangster from Punjab and has currently been cooling his heels in Ajmer jail since he was booked and arrested by Jodhpur police following incidents of firing at the houses of some influential people of the city for extorting money from them.
He also hit the headlines for throwing open challenges to kill Salman Khan apparently to win the favour of the Bishnoi community in Rajasthan. In spite of his being in jail, he is said to have carried out many criminal activities, building his own gang in Rajasthan.