Baba Siddique's murder: A Mumbai court has remanded the third accused arrested in connection with the high-profile murder of NCP leader and former Maharashtra minister Baba Siddique to police custody until October 21. The accused, identified as Pravin Lonkar, was arrested on Sunday (October 13) in Pune and is alleged to have facilitated the recruitment of two of the three shooters involved in the fatal shooting, which occurred in Bandra on October 12. During the court proceedings before Magistrate VR Patil, police requested Lonkar’s custody for further interrogation aimed at uncovering the broader conspiracy behind the shocking assassination. As per the police, Pravin Lonkar's brother Shubham is allegedly associated with jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi.
The prosecution claimed Shubham Lonkar and other wanted accused had conspired the shooting and supplied arms to the gunmen who attacked the 66-year-old politician, a former MLA from Bandra (West). They informed the court that Pravin Lonkar has to be taken to Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar for further probe into the case and hence his custody was required.
What Lonkar's advocate contended?
Pravin Lonkar's advocate Prashant Badkar refuted the allegations and said his client was being made a "scapegoat" as the police were unable to apprehend Shubham Lonkar. The advocate maintained the killing was a sensitive case, but there cannot be any allegations of conspiracy against Pravin Lonkar, who runs a dairy shop. The magistrate, after hearing both sides, remanded Pravin Lonkar to police custody till October 21. Two of the arrested shooters in the case, Gurmail Baljit Singh (23), a resident of Haryana, Dharmaraj Rajesh Kashyap (19), a native of Uttar Pradesh, are also in police custody till next Monday.
Baba Siddique's murder
The NCP leader was waylaid by three persons at Kher Nagar in Bandra just outside his MLA-son Zeeshan Siddique's office and shot at on Saturday night. He was rushed to Lilavati Hospital where he was declared dead. The Mumbai police's crime branch has so far arrested two shooters, while the third gunman, Shivkumar Gautam, was still at large. As per the police, Pravin Lonkar and his brother Shubham "enlisted" Kashyap and Gautam to carry out the shooting. The police had recovered two pistols and 28 live bullets from the two arrested shooters. The police were also verifying a social media post, attributed to a purported member of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, owning up to the murder of Siddique.
(With PTI inputs)
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