Mumbai Police Arrest Third Suspect in Baba Siddique Murder Case

Mumbai/New Delhi: The crime branch of Mumbai police on Sunday arrested the third accused, 28-year-old Pravin Lonkar, from Pune in connection with the murder of former Maharashtra minister Baba Siddique, who was shot dead on Saturday night. The final rites of Siddique, who served as minister from 2004 to 2008, were performed with full state honours on Sunday night.

The murder of the NCP leader in Mumbai's upscale Bandra triggered a fiery exchange between the Opposition and the BJP on Sunday, even as a viral social media post claimed Lawrence Bishnoi gang's role behind the shocking crime.

The Congress led the Opposition attack demanding a thorough investigation into the former minister's killing and said Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde and home minister Devendra Fadnavis should take moral responsibility for “law and order failure” in the state and resign.

The BJP slammed the Opposition for indulging in "petty politics" over the murder. Siddique's party chief and deputy CM Ajit Pawar said the murder should not be politicised.

On its part, the Mumbai police arrested two of the suspects -- Gurmail Baljit Singh and Dharmaraj Rajesh Kashyap – from the spot of the shootout on Saturday. The two other suspects -- Shiv Kumar Gautam and Mohammad Zishan Akhtar -- are still at large. The third accused arrested by the Mumbai police is suspected to have given the contract for Siddique’s murder.

In a related development, according to police sources, a team from the Delhi police special cell is set to be dispatched to Mumbai to assist in the investigation of the murder of Siddique.

"A team comprising four to five members from the special cell will go to Mumbai to investigate and assist the Mumbai police. The team will look into the gangster angle," said the source.

According to the Mumbai police sources, Gautam opened fire on Siddique, while Akhtar is believed to have received the contract to murder Siddique. Pravin’s brother Shubham Lonkar, a suspected member of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang and resident of Maharashtra’s Akola, had claimed responsibility for the murder in a Facebook post. His Facebook post indicated that Siddique was killed because of his proximity with actor Salman Khan and to avenge the death of Anuj Thapan, who was arrested in connection with a firing on the actor’s residence and allegedly committed suicide in police lock-up.

The police produced Singh and Kashyap before a magistrate court on Sunday and sought their custody for further investigation. However, Kashyap claimed that he was only 17-year-old and cannot be tried as an adult. The magistrate ordered the police to produce him before the appropriate court after conducting an ossification test to determine his age. The court remanded Singh to police custody till October 21.

While seeking the remand of the accused, the police informed the court that they have recovered 28 live cartridges from the accused and they may also be associated with some international gang. The police also claimed to have recovered two pistols with magazines and four mobile phones from them.

According to the Mumbai police, Siddique was leaving from his MLA son Zeeshan Siddique's office for his residence in Bandra (West) between 9.15 pm and 9:30 pm on Saturday when he was shot at. He was rushed to the hospital, where he was declared dead.

There were three assailants who had opened fire on Siddique, out of whom two alleged assailants were arrested from the spot along with the alleged murder weapons. The police is verifying the involvement of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang in the murder.

“We are trying to find out the role of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang in this case. When he came out of his son’s office, the incident happened. There were three people at the spot of the incident. Two have been caught and one is absconding. We have formed 15 teams of the crime branch to catch the absconding accused,” said deputy commissioner of police (crime branch) Datta Nalawade.

In a response to a query over "Y plus" category security, Mr Nalawade said that Siddique was accorded with non-categorised security. “He was not provided categorised protection, but he was provided protection by three police personnel. These constables work in three shifts. At the time of the incident, one policeman was accompanying him,” he said. According to the police sources, the accused were staying at Kurla west in Mumbai suburb. Singh was in Kaithal jail in Haryana after his arrest in connection with a murder case, where he came in contact with the Bishnoi gang. Gautam and Kashyap were hired for this task and the trio were sent to Mumbai a few days ago to eliminate the former minister. They had rented a room in Kurla and stayed there for several days and conducted recces multiple times before eliminating the minister on Saturday night.

The sources also claimed that the conspiracy to eliminate Siddique was hatched in Kaithal jail. The police have not specified any motive behind the murder and said they were investigating all angles, including Siddique’s closeness with actor Salman Khan, who has received threats from the Bishnoi gang. The police are also investigating if a dispute over a slum rehabilitation project was the cause behind Siddique’s murder.

As per the remand copy, the police want to question the accused to know from where they got the firearms or who supplied the firearms to them, whether Siddique had been murdered by the accused on the behest of someone else and what was the motive behind the murder.

The DCP crime branch said that Singh, who is 23 years old, is a resident of Haryana, while Kashyap, whom police claimed, is 19 years old and belongs to Bahraich district of Uttar Pradesh. Absconding accused Guatam (24) is also from the same place as Kashyap.

A senior police officer said that Gautam fired all six bullets at Siddique, three of which hit the NCP leader's body.

Gautam’s mother, Suman, expressed shock and disbelief at the allegations. While speaking to the media, she described her son as a hardworking and peaceful person. She said that he had gone to Pune to work at a scrap shop and had last visited the village during Holi. “Policemen and media people have been coming and going since morning asking about Gautam. The police have questioned us too,” she added.

Kashyap’s mother, Kusum, said that he went to Pune to work as a scrap dealer. “When the police came to our house in the morning, we came to know that my son was involved in some case.”

Though they have no criminal history in Bahraich, still, as a precaution, the police is trying to gather information about both of them, superintendent of police Vrinda Shukla told mediapersons. “They belong to normal families and both were in touch with their families. A police team visited their homes to find out whether they have any information about this incident or not,” she added.