Baba Siddique, a well-known politician and an influential personality died on Saturday night after assailants opened fire upon him outside his son MLA Zeeshan Siddique's office. He was rushed to the Lilavati Hospital where doctors declared him dead.
The police have so far arrested two assailants named Gurmail Singh, hailing from Haryana's Kaithal and Dharmraj Kashyap, belonging to UP's Behraich. The police have identified a third accused named Shiv Kumar alias Shiv Gautam, also a resident of UP's Behraich.
How accused orchestrated murder?
According to the police sources, the person who gave them the contract had arranged the meeting of Gurmail with Shiva and Dharamraj. After getting a contract, the accused rented a house in Mumbai's Kurla for Rs 14,000. They had been living in the house since September 2. According to the information, four accused took a contract to kill the NCP leader for Rs 50,000 each.
Three of the four accused were previously lodged in a Punjab jail at the same time where they came in contact with a member of Lawrence Bishnoi gang and later joined him. According to sources, the accused had been planning it for many days. After their arrival in Mumbai, they had been doing recce of the site for the last 25-30 days.
On the day of the shooting, they took an auto-rickshaw and reached the office of Baba Siddique's son MLA Zeeshan Siddique in Bandra East. The accused reached the site early and waited for some time. After finding Baba Siddique in clear sight and shooting range, they started to fire indiscriminately at the NCP leader. Later, Siddique succumbed to bullet injuries in Mumbai's Lilavati Hospital.
Investigation so far
The Mumbai police's 15 teams are raiding several locations across 3 states. Meanwhile, Delhi Police is also set to send a team for the investigation as they believe that a suspected gangster's motive behind the murder of Baba Siddiqui was to establish his influence in Mumbai. According to the sources, Mumbai Police are also planning to visit the Sabarmati Jail, where Bishnoi is lodged. Police are looking for legal procedures in that direction.
The police are also investigating the probable angle of murder regarding the Bandra slum redevelopment project, which the NCP leader protested. According to the information, a slum redevelopment was to be done in Mumbai's Bandra area. Siddique was against the redevelopment and has protested it.
Regarding the objection to this project, Siddique's son and MLA Zeeshan was booked in August at Kherwadi Police Station. He was accused of misbehaving with the officials who went to review the SRA project. Subsequently, Zeeshan also organised a hunger strike in protest against the project.
(Reported by: Dinesh, Rajesh and Saket)
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