Baba Siddique, a former three-time MLA, was shot dead in Bandra last night.
Mumbai:
The two suspects arrested in the murder of former Maharashtra minister Baba Siddique claimed to belong to Lawrence Bishnoi’s gang, sources said. Cops have not confirmed the claim, while the gang has yet to claim responsibility for the killing, which has sparked security concerns ahead of elections in Maharashtra state.
Baba Siddique, 66, a prominent politician from the Ajit Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party and former three-time MLA from Bandra West, was gunned down in Bandra last night.
At least six bullets were fired Mr. Siddique near his son’s office and four punch him in the chest. The cops, who suspect that it is a contract killing, have formed four special teams to investigate the case.
The shooting, which coincided with Dussehra celebrations, was carried out by three men. Two men – Gurmail Baljit Singh, 23, from Haryana and Dharamraj Kashyap, 19, from Uttar Pradesh – were arrested, while the third remains on the run. However, police believe someone else may have tipped them off about Mr Siddique’s location.
During their interrogation by the Mumbai police’s crime branch, the two arrested suspects claimed that they had been scouting the scene of the shooting in Bandra East for nearly a month, sources said.
The three accused arrived there last night in an auto-rickshaw and waited for some time before the shooting began, crime branch sources added.
The cops investigate the case from two angles – one related to the Bishnoi gang and the other related to a slum rehabilitation case.
The Bishnoi gang’s involvement is suspected because of Mr Siddique’s closeness to Bollywood star Salman Khan, who received threats from Lawrence Bishnoi. Sources close to the victim claimed that he received a death threat 15 days ago and was given a ‘Y’ category security cover.
However, Mr Siddique did not report any threat from the Bishnoi gang, according to the police.
Central agencies are in touch with the Mumbai police, while the Gujarat and Delhi cops are also probing the case.
Lawrence Bishnoi, who is facing dozens of criminal cases, is currently lodged in a jail in Gujarat, but his gang continues to make headlines for making ransom calls to businessmen. Salman Khan was on his ‘hit list’ for his scandalous 1998 black money poaching case.
Rohit Godara, a close aide of Bishnoi, had earlier claimed that anyone who is Salman Khan’s friend is their enemy.
Police sources suggest that there are over 700 gunmen in Bishnoi’s gang and many small and big criminals from across the country are working for him. Bishnoi has also been linked to several murders in recent days, including that of the rapper Sidhu Muswala and a A Delhi-based gym owner of Afghan origin.
