The Mumbai Police has issued a lookout notice against Shubham Lonkar, the brother of Pravin Lonkar who was the third accused arrested in connection with the murder of former Maharashtra minister and NCP leader Baba Siddique, sources said on Thursday (October 17). Shubham had allegedly conspired the shooting and supplied arms to the three gunmen who attacked the 66-year-old politician, a former MLA from Bandra (West).
Pravin’s brother is also allegedly associated with jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi. He has yet to be arrested in the case, which is why the police have issued the lookout notice.
Earlier, a Mumbai court remanded the third accused arrested in connection with the Baba Siddique murder case 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.
The prosecution 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.
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.
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