News Mania / Piyal Chatterjee / 14th October 2024
Under strict security, former Maharashtra minister Baba Siddique was buried on Sunday night with state honors in front of a sizable throng that included political figures. Siddique, a member of the National Congress Party’s (NCP) Ajit Pawar group and a former three-time Bandra West MLA, was shot dead in Bandra East on Saturday. He was sixty-six.Near his son Zeeshan’s workplace, Mr. Siddique was struck by at least six gunshots, four of which struck his chest. The shooting, which took place during Dussehra celebrations, was committed by three males. According to sources, the two suspects detained in Mr. Siddique’s murder have stated that they are members of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang.
On Sunday evening, Baba Siddique was buried with full state honors. On Sunday, NCP leader and former three-time MLA Baba Siddique was buried in front of hundreds of people at Bada Kabrastan in Marine Lines. The funeral procession was led by his son, MLA Zeeshan Siddique, and the lifeless remains were taken from Siddique’s home in Bandra.
The crowd outside the cemetery demonstrated Baba Siddique’s broad appeal as individuals from all walks of life, spanning political and religious divides, came to pay their respects.
Two of the three defendants, Gurmail Singh and Dharmaraj Kashyap, were placed under police custody till October 21 by Mumbai’s Killa court on Sunday. Earlier in the day, Kashyap claimed to be a minor, but it was later established that he is not, therefore the court ordered a bone ossification test for him. A major conspirator, Pravin Lonkar of Pune, who is purportedly the brother of the person responsible for the now-deleted social media post proving the participation of imprisoned gangster Lawrence Bishnoi in the murder of NCP leader Baba Siddique, was also detained by the police.
Shivkumar Gautam from Uttar Pradesh, the third suspected shooter, is evading capture. A fourth suspect has also been identified by the police: Mohamed Zeeshan Akhtar, a Punjabi national who is thought to have been involved with the Bishnoi gang and was given the order to kill Siddique. Pravin and Shubham Lonkar, the man who created the social media post and is presently evading justice, employed two of the three accused who were detained while they were employed at a Pune scrap yard.
To obstruct the view of the police officers in Baba Siddique’s protection detail, one of the three guys who killed him on Saturday night—two of whom are already being held by the police—lit a smoke firecracker. The statement of a head constable who was a member of the previous Maharashtra minister’s security cover serves as the basis for this particular fact. According to the authorities, the shooters opened fire and murdered him when the security detail members were temporarily distracted.
While Shubham Lonkar is absconding, police sources said his brother, Pravin, is also suspected to be involved in the conspiracy and was arrested from Pune.
“Shubham Lonkar had put up the social media post claiming that Siddique was gunned down due to his earlier links to Dawood Ibrahim and the death of Anuj Thappan (one of the accused arrested in the firing outside actor Salman Khan’s residence, who allegedly died by suicide in the lock-up). He deleted the post within a few minutes. The police probe found that he was involved in hatching the conspiracy. He fled by the time we reached his Akola residence. We have, however, arrested his brother Pravin from Pune,” a police officer said.
