Chandigarh, Dec 15 : The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Friday accused the Bhagwant Mann-led AAP government in Punjab for trying to mislead the Punjab and Haryana High Court on the issue of interviews of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi from jails.

The party urged the High Court to order an independent inquiry into the matter under its monitoring.

In a statement here, SAD leader Bikram Majithia said it was shocking the government has submitted in the High Court that there was 'unlikely' possibility of interview being conducted from Punjab jails.

He said the truth of the matter is that when the first interview of the Bishnoi was aired on a TV channel, at that time, Punjab Police had claimed that the look of the Bishnoi was different when he was brought into police custody and Punjab Police had released the latest images of the gangster.  He said the next day, the latest interview was aired again by same channel in which he was donning same images as described by Punjab Police.  He said this fact makes it ample clear that he might be in custody of the Punjab Police and lodged in the Bathinda Jail when this interview was conducted.  He said "It appears that the action of the gangster at that time was also aimed at embarrassing the government by giving interview in outfit and look as described by Punjab Police". 

Majithia said it was most unfortunate to see that the Chief Minister, who was a comedian before joining politics, has turned the law and order situation in the state into a comedy circus in which industrialists, traders and the common men were getting extortion calls, getting murdered and widespread drugs menace is destroying youth of Punjab.  He also gave example of a property developer who got extortion calls and was provided bulletproof car and security by the Chief Minister but still had to give Rs 10 crore to gangsters to save his skin.  He said when a person close to the Chief Minister could have to face such a situation, one can easily understand what the common men would have to do.  He urged the Punjab and High Court, which took suo moto notice of the interview matter, to order an independent inquiry into this whole issue under its own monitoring as officers who are reporting directly to the Chief Minister, the Home Minister and the Jails Minister were not expected to present facts before the court blaming their own Chief Minister.