Baba Siddique murder; plan to kill Siddique's son MLA Zeeshan Siddique too

MUMBAI: Underworld don Lawrence Bishnoi was given a quotation to kill former Maharashtra minister Baba Siddique along with his son and MLA Zeeshan Siddique. The disclosure belongs to the arrested Bishnoi gang members. Zeeshan is an MLA from Bandra East. He won on a Congress ticket but was expelled from the party months ago after he defected and voted in the legislative council elections. They were instructed to kill the first person available if they couldn't kill the two together.

Baba Siddique(66), a leader of NCP's Ajit Pawar faction, was killed on Saturday night when he was coming out of the office after meeting his son. The attackers had received information that the two might take part in the Dussehra procession together. They waited accordingly but saw the crowd in the procession and changed the plan. Baba Siddique was shot while trying to get into the car. The attack took place after chilli powder was thrown into the eyes of a policeman who was assigned to Baba's security.

Gurmail Baljit Singh (23), a native of Haryana, and Dharmaraj Rajesh Kashyap (19), a resident of Uttar Pradesh, were nabbed soon after. The third one, Shivkumar Gautam, a native of UP, escaped. It was Shivakumar who fired six shots. It is learnt that he was seen in Panvel, Mumbai yesterday. Four teams have been formed to nab him.

The accused Dharmaraj, while being produced at court, had said that he was a minor. Following this, the age determination test was conducted yesterday, and it was found that what Dharmaraj said was false.

Meanwhile, a man named Praveen Lonkar, who had posted on Facebook that he was involved in Baba's murder, was arrested on Sunday night. His brother Shubhman is a member of the Bishnoi gang.

Planning for days

• The accused planned the murder by staying in a rented house in Kurla for days.
• The accused came from Kurla to Bandra daily in an auto rickshaw and monitored Baba and his son.
• The attackers had also secretly pursued the two in places where they used to go regularly.

"Yaar tera gangster hai jaani (your friend is a gangster)"

Sivakumar, an accused in the Siddique murder case, had revealed on Instagram three months ago that he was a gangster. "Sharif baap hai # (expletives) hum nahin (My father is a law-abiding man, not me)" He had also posted a dialogue from the movie KGF “Powerful people make Places Powerful”. Police said no criminal case has been registered against Shivakumar in the past. His house is in Gandhara village. He was working in a scrap shop there. The family cannot believe that their son was involved in such a big criminal gang.