Baba Siddique murder case: Citing initial investigations in the Baba Siddique murder case, Mumbai Police sources on Monday revealed that brothers Praveen Lonkar and Shubham Lonkar were involved in the crime and the authorities have sought information from social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram regarding their posts related to the case.
Baba Siddique was shot dead in the Bandra area on Saturday night, causing a massive political storm in the state of Maharashtra which will go to Assembly polls next month.
Who helped with the weapon?
According to the police, Shubham and Praveen Lonkar were involved in coordinating, financing, and arranging logistics, including weapons, for killing Baba Siddique. Shubham has been absconding for the last one month. The police are investigating who was directing Shubham and Praveen to kill the NCP leader. As of now, four mobile phones have been recovered from the accused as part of the ongoing investigation.
3 accused arrested
According to the police, each accused involved in the Baba Siddique murder case was only informed of their specific role. So far, three individuals have been arrested, while three others—Shubham Lonkar, Zeeshan Akhtar, and Shivkumar—remain absconding. The police have confirmed that both brothers, Praveen and Shubham Lonkar, are directly involved in the crime.
Who gave offer to kill Baba Siddique?
During interrogation, the accused revealed to the police that Praveen and Shubham Lonkar had brought the murder offer to them. Several meetings took place in Pune where they were promised a large sum of money upon completing the task. The police believe that Shivkumar holds crucial information regarding this case.
Zeeshan had received threats
Earlier in the day, the Mumbai Police said Zeeshan Siddique, son of NCP leader Baba Siddique had received threats a few days before his father was shot dead in Mumbai. The accused told during interrogation that both Zeeshan and Baba Siddique were on the target and they were ordered to fire on anyone they found, they added.
"Zeeshan Siddique was also the target of the accused. The accused were given a contract to kill both Zeeshan and Baba Siddique," the police said.
The police said investigating officials suspect that the shooters were instructed to target both NCP leader Baba Siddique and his MLA son Zeeshan Siddique. The NCP leader (66) was shot dead by three assailants at Kher Nagar in Mumbai's Bandra area just outside his son Zeeshan's office on Saturday night. He was rushed to the Lilavati Hospital where he was declared dead. On the day of the incident, Zeeshan left the office minutes before his father's arrival.
Police suspect that some insiders had passed on information about Siddique to the attackers, helping them to reach Kherwadi junction on time. The accused used to come to Bandra daily to conduct a recce of places linked to Baba Siddique and his son Zeeshan, mostly using auto rickshaws, they added.
