Chandigarh, March 18 -- The Punjab government on Tuesday sought closure of suo motu proceedings initiated by the high court in 2023, following the interviews of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi that were aired by a private channel. The case was being heard by a bench presided over by justice Anupinder Singh Grewal, who retired earlier this month and was listed for hearing before the bench presided over by the chief justice on Tuesday. "This cannot be an open-ended case continuing forever. the purpose of this PIL as it had started is absolutely over," senior advocate Puneet Bali, appearing for the Punjab government, said while listing out the steps taken by the Punjab government against glorification of gangster culture and strengthening jail infrastructure. He submitted that the issue of the gangster interview has already been conclusively probed, and a court-monitored SIT filed reports and fixed the responsibility of the concerned officer. The court also examined the issue of jail infrastructure and steps taken in that regard have been detailed in the affidavits before the court. Later, the court also took cognisance of a shooting at a kabaddi event in Mohali and subsequently about firing incident reported outside Mohali SSP office, he said adding that multiple affidavits have been filed covering 92 FIRs relating to shooting incidents, month-wise details of extortion cases, SOPs and anti-gangster helplines, removal of online content, and proposals for installation of 12,000+ CCTV cameras approximately costing Rs.60 crore. He further argued that in view of this, the proceedings should be closed. The court has deferred the hearing for March 24, observing that it would examine on the adjourned date whether court monitoring was required. The suo motu plea was initiated in 2023, observing that such interviews tend to glorify crime and criminals and could have an adverse effect on impressionable minds. Later, the interviews were deleted, but the police had told the court that these interviews garnered 12 million views on YouTube....