The sensational murder of NCP leader Baba Siddique has shocked the nation, with Mumbai Police telling the court that it has evidence of the involvement of Lawrence Bishnoi gang's shooters in this crime. Police says, the arrested shooters have disclosed that they were asked to kill Baba's MLA son Zeeshan Siddique too. Two shooters, Gurmail Singh and Dharmraj Kashyap were arrested within hours of the crime, while a third person, Praveen Lonkar, described as conspirator, was nabbed from Pune. The third shooter, Shiv Kumar Gautam, is absconding, while their coordinator Zeeshan Akhtar has gone underground. Police says, the shooters were hired by Praveen Lonkar and his brother Shubham Lonkar alias Subu.
It was Shubham Lonkar who had taken responsibility for the murder of Baba Siddique by posting his comments on social media. He had tagged Lawrence Bishnoi going and Anmol Bishnoi in his post. Top police officials believe that this could not be the handiwork of a bunch of novices, but some big criminals are involved in the conspiracy. Four out of the six suspects have no past criminal records. Already Maharashtra politics is on the boil over the murder of the NCP leader. The manner in which Baba Siddique was murdered is shocking and frightening. Baba had 'Y' category security, but his securitymen could not save him. They were not seen at the time of crime. Baba had received threats to his life and police was aware of the threat perception. Yet the killers came, shot point-blank at him and fled.
The worrying part is that youths in the age group 20-22 years were hired to carry out this murder. They had no previous criminal background. They and their co-conspirators are proudly posting their comments on social media. There appears to be a pattern in this, from Delhi to Mumbai.
If this murder is the handiwork of a criminal gangster-like Lawrence Bishnoi sitting inside a jail, then it is more worrying. How can a dangerous criminal run his gang, sitting within the confines of a prison? How did he manage to train more than 200 youths in the art of shooting? Police officials say, Lawrence Bishnoi gets these murders done, by charging only Rs 10-20,000. How can it be that he can hire anybody and make them fire at his targets? What are our security agencies doing? Has their intelligence machinery failed? The question is not confined to Baba Siddique alone, or a gym owner Nadir Shah, who was shot outside his gym in Delhi's Greater Kailash. The main question is: open gang war is going in big metros like Delhi and Mumbai, where youths hired from UP, Haryana and Punjab are carrying out killings.
Somebody will have to answer. Somebody will have to put a brake on this crime wave. Yogi Adityanath has done this in Uttar Pradesh. He and his police have struck fear in the hearts of criminals and a model has been created to eliminate mafia gangs. Such a model needs to be replicated in other states too. Any government that follows this model will, I think, surely get public support.
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