New Delhi: In August, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs increased the restrictions on the movement of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, who is currently lodged at Sabarmati Central Jail in Ahmedabad, for another year. Therefore, if Bishnoi has to be interrogated for any case, it has to be only within the jail premises.
Bishnoi, whose name has been linked to the killing of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and three-time MLA Baba Siddique last week, is facing a number of cases under probe by the Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) and National Investigation Agency (NIA).
The order imposing restrictions slapped under Section 268 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) was valid until August 2024. Now, this order has been extended under Section 303 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS). As per a new order from the Ministry of Home Affairs, this extension will stay effective until August 2025, as confirmed by DIG Shweta Shrimali, Superintendent of Sabarmati Central Jail, according to a report in The Indian Express.
In August 2023, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had issued an order under Section 268 of the CrPC against the gangster, which prevented him from being taken out of the jail for any purpose.
What Section 303 of BNSS says
According to Section 303 of the BNSS, “303. (1) The state government or the central government, as the case may be, may, at any time, having regard to the matters specified in sub-section (2), by general or special order, direct that any person or class of persons shall not be removed from the prison in which he or they may be confined or detained, and thereupon, so long as the order remains in force, no order made under section 302, whether before or after the order of the state government, shall have effect in respect of such person or class of persons.”
DIG Shrimali told The Indian Express that in case any police or agency wishes to question him, they must provide a judicial order and any investigation pertaining to his person must be conducted on the prison premises itself. “We have not received any such requests recently.”
A Mumbai Police official had said that a man named Shubham Lonkar had in a social media post stated that Lawrence Bishnoi was behind the shooting on Baba Siddique. While Shubham is at large, his brother Pravin, who is also allegedly part of the Baba Siddique murder plot, has been arrested from Pune.
