Mumbai:

A photo of Zeeshan Siddique was found in the phone of one of the men who shot his father, Baba Siddique, last Saturday. The phone recovered from one of the accused arrested during the investigation of the murder case of the NCP leader had his photo, police sources said.

According to the sources, the photo was shared with the accused by their handler through Snapchat. The platform, investigators say, was used by the shooters and conspirators in the case to send messages to each other.

These messages were deleted on instruction from their handler, allegedly belonging to the gang of the notorious gangster Lawrence Bishnoi.

Read | Son’s Cryptic Post After Baba Siddique Murder

Siddique was shot by three men near his MLA son’s office in Nirmal Nagar in Mumbai’s Bandra area on October 12. The Congress-turned-NCP leader was rushed to nearby Lilavati Hospital where he was declared dead. The police have arrested nine people – including two of the three shooters – in the case so far. Five of them – Nitin Gautam Sapre (32), Sambhaji Kisan Pardhi (44), Pradeep Dattu Thombre (37), Chetan Dilip Pardhi and Ram Fulchand Kanoujia (43) -were arrested yesterday for allegedly providing firearms and logistical support to the shooters. Three accused are still on the run, police said.

Kanoujia, a resident of Panvel in Raigad, told police that the contract to kill Siddique was initially given to him and Sapre, sources said. He quoted a whopping amount of Rs 1 crore to take up the contract as, he said, he didn’t want to kill Siddique, the sources added. After Kanaujia and Sapre backed off, the task was given to Dharmraj Kashyap, Gurnail Singh and Shivkumar Gautam, the sources said. Kashyap and Singh were arrested on the day of the crime while Gautam managed to escape.

The accused told police that Shubham Lonkar – who was an alleged conspirator and the handler of the shooters in the case – chose Kashyap and Gautam for the job because he knew the people of Uttar Pradesh would not know about Baba Siddiqui’s stature in Maharashtra and that they would agree to commit the murder even for less money, according to the police sources.

Constable With Baba Siddique During Shooting Incident Suspended

When Baba Siddique was shot, he had only one police constable – a part of his security detail – accompanying him who did not retaliate when six rounds were fired at the senior politician. The security personnel has been suspended.

The constable told the investigators that he failed to react at the time of the incident as some “chilli-like substance” had entered his eyes, the sources said.

The three shooters and a co-conspirator had stationed themselves close to Mr Siddique’s waiting car, as per a reconstruction of the assassination. As the 66-year-old came out of the office and tried to get inside the car, the killers let off some device that covered the area in thick smoke. Many thought it was the smoke from the firecrackers, which also masked the noise of gunshots.

Baba Siddique had a ‘2+1’ security which means, two security guards during the day and one at night. When he went to Bandra East on October 12, he had two security guards with him. But before he left his son’s office, around 8:30 pm, one of the two security guards had left the location.

Lawrence Bishnoi Gang Link?

The Mumbai Crime Branch is also probing if the arrested accused had any link to the firing outside actor Salman Khan’s Galaxy Apartments residence in Mumbai’s Bandra area in April. Lawrence Bishnoi had taken responsibility for the crime.

A day after Siddique’s murder, a Facebook post claimed the Bishnoi gang was behind it. Hours later, a 28-year-old man was arrested from Pune. The police said the arrested man, Pravin Lonkar, was a “co-conspirator” and added that they were on the lookout for his brother, Shubham Lonkar.

31-year-old Bishnoi is in jail since 2015 is accused of running a trans-national crime syndicate by the National Investigation Agency. His name has been linked to several high-profile murder and extortion cases including the 2022 killing of popular Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala.

Mumbai:

The shooters who killed Maharashtra politician Baba Siddique relied on YouTube videos to practise shooting. Accused Gurmail Singh and Dharamaraj Kashyap – who were arrested hours after they fired six rounds at Siddique – learned to shoot by watching videos on YouTube, sources said.

The police are trying to find out about the location they used to practice at, the sources added.

The Mumbai crime branch has so far recorded the statements of more than 15 people in this case, including many witnesses. The Mumbai Police also arrested one more person today – its fourth arrest – in connection with the killing of the NCP leader, claiming that he provided money and weapons for the crime.

Harishkumar Balakram Nisad (23), from Bahraich in Uttar Pradesh, was on Tuesday remanded in police custody till October 21 by a court in Mumbai.

Accused Pravin (arrested) and Shubham Lonkar (on the run) had given Rs 2 lakh to the arrested shooters Gurmail Singh and Dharamaraj Kashyap and this money was sent through the fourth accused Harish, the police said.

Nisad worked as a scrap dealer in Warje area of Pune city, said a police official.

Gurmail Baljit Singh (23), Uttar Pradesh native Dharmaraj Rajesh Kashyap (19) – the alleged shooters – were arrested on Saturday while “co-conspirator” Pravin Lonkar was arrested yesterday.

Three accused in the case – including another suspected shooter Shiva Lumar Gautam and Shubham Lonkar – are still on the run.

Nisad and Kashyap belong to the same village as the wanted accused Gautam.

Baba Siddique (66), a former Congress leader who had joined the Nationalist Congress Party earlier this year, was shot outside his MLA son Zeeshan Siddique’s office in Bandra east’s Nirmal Nagar area. He was rushed to the nearby Lilavati hospital where he was declared dead.

Pravin Lonkar was accused of “enlisting” two of the three alleged shooters. The police were also verifying a purported social media post of his brother Shubham, an alleged member of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, owning up to the murder of Siddique.

The police have also written to the Facebook and Instagram authorities, seeking more details about the post.

Shubham Lonkar was also picked by Mumbai Police in June this year for questioning after the firing incident outside Salman Khan’s house in Mumbai in April as the Bishnoi gang’s involvement was suspected.

But he was let off as no evidence was found. Still, he was kept under surveillance, but on September 24 he became untraceable.

The crime branch, meanwhile, has recovered a 7.62 mm gun from a black bag found near the crime scene.