Four, and not three, guns were used in the murder of Maharashtra politician Baba Siddique, who was shot dead earlier this month sending shock waves across the country, investigation has revealed, said Mumbai police on Friday.  

The Mumbai police is investigating if the guns were sent to India by Pakistan via drones, the source added. The picture of the guns was also sent to Rajasthan police. 

Baba Siddique, the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party leader, was gunned down on October 12 near his MLA son Zeeshan Siddique’s office in Nirmal Nagar in Bandra East. 

Jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi’s gang has claimed responsibility for the murder. 14 people have been arrested in the case, while three are on the run.

As per police, Haryana resident Gurmail Baljit Singh and Uttar Pradesh native Dharmaraj Kashyap as well as wanted accused Shivkumar Gautam shot at Baba Siddique, while Pune-based Pravin Lonkar’s brother Shubham is allegedly associated with jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi. He and other wanted accused had conspired to carry out the hit and supplied firearms to the shooters.

The three shooters threw chilli powder at the police officer guarding Siddique before killing him.

Harish Kumar Nisad, a scrap dealer from Pune, provided financial help for the operation, as per police.

Main shooter Shivkumar Gautam as well as key accused Shubham Lonkar and Mohammed Zeeshan Akhtar are currently on the run.

The main accused Zeeshan Akhtar was in touch with all the other accused and had promised them big money and a foreign tour upon completion of the task, police sources told NDTV. 

In a crackdown on the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, the Delhi Police Special Cell has arrested at least seven suspected shooters who were planning to target someone in Rajasthan, officials said today. 

The Bishnoi gang is known to be involved in various criminal activities, including homicide, extortion, and arms trafficking, and their profile has been on the rise over the past few years.

New Delhi:

Lawrence Bishnoi’s younger brother Anmol has shot into the spotlight after he was added to the most-wanted list of the National Investigation Agency and a Rs 10 lakh reward was announced for his arrest. His name has cropped up in several cases, including the murder of Punjabi singer and politician Sidhu Moosewala in 2022, the firing outside actor Salman Khan’s residence in Bandra in April and the killing of politician Baba Siddique earlier this month. 

Chargesheets were filed against Anmol Bishnoi, who is from Fazilka in Punjab, in two cases registered by the NIA in 2022 and he fled India on a fake passport last year. He is believed to be in Canada.  

Anmol has at least 18 cases against him and allegedly provided weapons and logistical support to the men who gunned down Sidhu Moosewala near his village Moosa in Punjab’s Mansa district on June 29, 2022. Lawrence Bishnoi gang member Goldy Brar had taken responsibility for the killing and later claimed that it was carried out to avenge the murder of Vicky Muddukhera, a Youth Akali Dal leader. 

The responsibility for the firing outside Salman Khan’s residence, Galaxy Apartments in Bandra, was claimed by Anmol Bishnoi. A chargesheet filed in the case said that before the firing on April 14, Bishnoi delivered a nine-minute speech to motivate the shooters, Vicky Gupta and Sagar Pal, telling them that they were on course to create history. 

“Lord Ram has blessed us. We will handle him (Salman Khan). There is no problem, as long as it is in my control, I don’t have any problem,” he told the shooters. 

“Now it is do or die, either life or death. It is written by God. Either the bullets will be fired in the morning or we will sit at home. It is in your hands what to do and what not to do..,  If you work, then history will be created. You will fill the newspapers,” he said. 

The chargesheet had said the plan had been conceived in August last year and finetuned until it was finally carried out in April.

In July, a court in Mumbai had issued a non-bailable warrant against Anmol Bishnoi. 

Former Maharashtra minister and three-time MLA Baba Siddique was shot dead on Dussehra on October 12 outside the office of his son and MLA Zeeshan Siddique. Officials have said Anmol Bishnoi was in touch with the shooters in this case as well.

Two of the shooters, Gurmail Baljit Singh from Haryana and Dharamraj Kashyap from Uttar Pradesh were arrested soon after the killing while Shiv Kumar Gautam, who is also from Uttar Pradesh, is on the run.

New Delhi:

Anmol Bishnoi, the brother of jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, has been added to the most-wanted list of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), sources said.

The anti-terror agency has also announced a reward of Rs 10 lakh for the arrest of Anmol Bishnoi, who is wanted in connection with a shooting incident that occurred outside Bollywood actor Salman Khan’s Mumbai residence earlier this year.

Anmol, Lawrence Bishnoi – who is currently lodged in the Sabarmati central prison in Ahmedabad – and Canada-based gangster Goldie Brar were among the persons named as accused in the case related to the firing outside Mr Khan’s Bandra residence in Mumbai in April.

ALSO READ | Lawrence Bishnoi Has 700 Shooters On Call. How He Operates From Jail

The Navi Mumbai police had in this case arrested five Bishnoi gang members – Dhananjay alias Ajay Kashyap alias Nahvi, Gaurav Bhatia, Waspi Khan alias Wasim Chikna, Rizwan Khan alias Javed, and Deepak Hawa Singh alias John.

After the arrests, police in June also claimed to have uncovered a plot to target the actor on his way to his farmhouse near Panvel in Navi Mumbai.

The name of Anmol Bishnoi had also cropped up in the murder case of former Maharashtra minister Baba Siddique. The 66-year-old NCP leader was shot dead by three persons in Mumbai, just outside his MLA son Zeeshan Siddique’s office, on October 12.

Anmol Bishnoi’s Speech To Shooters In Salman Khan House Firing

On the night of April 14, Mumbai’s Bandra neighbourhood was rocked by the sound of gunfire as two men on motorbikes fired multiple rounds outside Salman Khan’s residence.

A detailed chargesheet shed light on the events leading up to the attack on the actor’s house and revealed a long conversation between Anmol Bishnoi — who is reportedly operating from outside the country — and the shooters involved.

A 9-minute-long speech by Anmol Bishnoi was aimed at instilling courage in the shooters, Vicky Gupta and Sagar Pal, as they prepared to “script history” with their violent act.

ALSO READ | “Either Bullets Will Be Fired Or…”: Details In Salman Khan House Firing

According to the chargesheet, the plan was hatched over several months, from August 2023 to April 2024.

Investigations have revealed that the Bishnoi gang intended to acquire advanced firearms from Pakistan, including AK-47s, AK-92s, M16 rifles, and the Turkish-made Zigana pistol, the weapon used in the murder of Punjabi singer-politician Sidhu Moose Wala in May 2022.

According to the chargesheet, a network of approximately 60 to 70 individuals was involved in tracking Mr Khan’s every movement. This extensive surveillance covered his residence in Mumbai, his Panvel farmhouse, and even the Goregaon Film City, which he often visited for film shoots.

Mumbai:

The three gunmen involved in the killing of NCP leader Baba Siddique in Mumbai practiced firing near a waterfall in adjoining Raigad district before executing the murder, police officials said on Tuesday citing their investigation.

The city police’s crime branch, investigating the October 12 murder, said interrogation of the arrested accused persons has revealed that shooters Dharmaraj Kashyap, Gurmail Singh, both arrested, and Shivkumar Gautam, who is on the run, practiced firing near a waterfall in Palasdhari under Karjat tehsil, on Mumbai’s outskirts, in September, an official said.

The shooters had found a secluded place near the waterfall, where they practiced firing for a day, he said.

A five-member Thane-based contract killing module led by Nitin Sapre and Ram Kanoujia initially got the deal to kill the former Maharashtra minister (66). Pistols used in the crime were brought by Kanoujia and another accused, Bhagwat Singh Om Singh, from Rajasthan, according to the official.

The module backed out of the contract over disagreement on demanding a sum of Rs 50 lakh for executing the crime and given the clout of the late politician, but decided to provide logistical support and other help for carrying out the hit, he said.

Shooters Gautam and Kashyap, both hailing from Uttar Pradesh, were in Mumbai in the middle of August and were kept in the Karjat area by the module. During investigation, it also came to light that Sapre and Kanoujia were in direct contact with two wanted accused in the case, Shubham Lonkar and Mohammed Zeeshan Akhtar, the official informed.

As the two shooters were aware of the topography of Karjat, a small hill town surrounded by forests which is dotted with waterfalls during the monsoon, they went for firing practice in the area along with the third gunman, Gurmail Singh, he said.

So far, the crime branch has arrested ten persons in connection with Siddique’s sensational murder in Mumbai’s Bandra area.

Police teams have fanned out in search of wanted accused Gautam, Shubham Lonkar and Akhtar against whom a look-out circular has been issued to prevent them from fleeing the country.

Investigators have not yet established the motive behind the murder and are probing the crime from different angles, including contract killing, business rivalry or threat over a slum rehabilitation project in Mumbai.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

A poster showing Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis holding a gun has gone viral on social media. The poster reads “Revenge Complete” and users sharing it claimed it was put up after the recent murder of NCP leader Baba Siddique.

The PTI Fact Check Desk, however, found that the viral image predated the killing of Baba Siddique on October 12. In fact, the controversial poster was put up in various parts of Mumbai by unknown individuals in September 2024, following the encounter of Akshay Shinde, the accused in the Badlapur sexual abuse case.

A user of the microblogging platform X shared the poster on October 15, writing, “A former minister, politician, and industrialist from Maharashtra has been murdered. After that, posters with photos of Maharashtra’s Home Minister and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, saying ‘Revenge Complete’, were put up across Mumbai. Does this mean Fadnavis orchestrated the murder? Can such a poster be put up all over the city without his consent? What direction is the country heading in? God save this country (sic).” This post has been viewed over 35,000 times, and the number is increasing.

To verify the claim, the Fact Check Desk conducted a reverse search of the viral image using Google Lens and found it in a news report published by Hindustan Times on September 26.

The report mentioned that after the death of Shinde, who was accused of sexually abusing two girls in Badlapur, in a police encounter, posters showing Fadnavis holding a gun with the caption “Revenge Complete” were put up overnight in areas such as Kherwadi, Andheri, Lalbaug, and Sion in Mumbai.

Some posters were later removed by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), according to the news article.

Google searches with relevant keywords also led the Fact Check team to media reports on Aaj Tak, TV9 Hindi, and News18. These reports confirmed that such posters were put up by unknown individuals after Shinde’s encounter in Mumbai, without any mention of a specific leader or party.

Siddique, also a former Maharashtra minister, was shot dead outside the office of his MLA son Zeeshan Siddiqui on October 12. The Lawrence Bishnoi gang reportedly claimed responsibility for the murder.

As part of its investigation into the viral image, the PTI Fact Check Desk reached out to the agency’s Western Region editor Vilas Tokale, who confirmed that both images were from the posters put up after the encounter of Akshay Shinde, the accused in the Badlapur sexual abuse case, and they were unrelated to Siddique’s murder.

Based on the findings so far, it is clear that the viral poster predates Siddique’s murder. Users are sharing an old image with a false claim on social media.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Mumbai:

Mumbai Police’s crime branch investigating the Baba Siddique murder case on Sunday arrested a scrap dealer from Navi Mumbai for allegedly providing a weapon to shooters, taking the number of persons in custody so far to 10, an official said.

The accused has been identified as Bhagwat Singh Om Singh (32), originally from Udaipur in Rajasthan who is currently staying in Navi Mumbai.

Bhagwat Singh Om Singh was produced before a court which remanded him to police custody till October 26, the official said.

Police have so far arrested 10 persons, including Bhagwant Singh, from various locations, including five from the Mumbai Metropolitan region for providing logistical support and firearms, in connection with Baba Siddique’s killing on October 12.

The former Maharashtra minister was fatally shot, prima facie by three persons, near the office of his MLA son in Bandra.

The suspected shooters in the custody of police are Gurmail Baljit Singh (23) and Dharmaraj Rajesh Kashyap (19). The main shooter, Shivkumar Gautam, and two other persons involved in the murder conspiracy are on the run.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Mumbai MLA Zeeshan Siddique, son of Maharashtra’s former minister Baba Siddique who was murdered last week, asserted today that he is ready to take his father’s place in service to the people.  “The blood of a lion runs in my veins. I am still here, unafraid and unbroken. They took one, but I rise in his place. This fight is far from over. Today, I stand where he stood : ALIVE, RELENTLESS and READY,” read his post on social media platform X, formerly twitter.

They silenced my father. But they forget – he was a lion-and I carry his roar within me, his fight in my veins. He stood for justice, fought for change and withstood the storms with unwavering courage. Now, those who brought him down turn their sights on me assuming they’ve won,…

— Zeeshan Siddique (@zeeshan_iyc) October 20, 2024

Baba Siddique was shot down last week, apparently  by the order of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, who is currently in Gujarat’s Sabarmati Jail. The motive, apparently, was the former minister’s close relationship with Bollywood actor Salman Khan. 

Investigators said Zeeshan Siddique is also a target for the same reason. His photo has been found on the cellphone seized from one of the three men who shot his father.

While nothing is on record, Bishnoi’s associates have given the impression that his grouse against Salman Khan is about the blackbucks the actor killed 20 years ago. 

Siddique was shot by three men near his MLA son’s office in  Mumbai’s Bandra area on October 12. 

The former Congress leader, who had switched to NCP, was taken to the nearby Lilavati Hospital, where he was declared dead. 

The police have arrested nine people – including two of the three shooters – in the case so far.

Bishnoi, who has multiple cases agaisnt him, including of murder,  had shot into limelight with the murder of Punjabi artiste Siddhu Moose Wala.

New Delhi:

Even as the number of arrests in NCP leader Baba Siddique’s murder case went up to nine, his MLA son Zeeshan Siddique on Friday shared a cryptic post on social media platform X.

Not all that is hidden sleeps,
Nor all that is visible speaks.

— Zeeshan Siddique (@zeeshan_iyc) October 18, 2024

On the same day, Zeeshan Siddique met Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who also holds the home portfolio in the Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government, and was apprised of the police probe so far into the murder of his father.

Earlier on Thursday, Zeeshan Siddique had demanded justice for his family, while also appealing that his father’s death should not be politicised and nor should it go in vain.

Baba Siddique was gunned down near Zeeshan Siddique’s office in Nirmal Nagar in Mumbai’s Bandra area on October 12. Nine persons have been arrested in the case so far, including five held on Friday after raids in Panvel and Karjat in neighbouring Raigad district.

Meanwhile, a shooter of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang claimed Baba Siddique was not a good man and had connections with India’s most-wanted criminal Dawood Ibrahim. 

Yogesh alias Raju (26), who is associated with the Lawrence Bishnoi-Hashim Baba gangs but not linked with Baba Siddique’s killing, said, “There were charges against him under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). It is said that he was associated with Dawood, the man behind the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts. When people get involved with such individuals, something is bound to happen. This is exactly what happened to Siddique,” Raju claimed.

As investigation into the case continues and security for actor Salman Khan was ramped up after the 66-year-old NCP leader’s murder, police in Mumbai received a threat message demanding Rs 5 crore from Mr Khan, claiming to resolve his conflict with imprisoned gangster Lawrence Bishnoi. The message also warned that if the demand is not met, “Salman Khan’s condition will be worse than Baba Siddique.”

Mumbai:

Five more persons were held on Friday in connection with the murder of NCP leader Baba Siddique, taking the total number of arrests in the sensational case to nine, a Mumbai police official said.

Based on specific information, raids were carried out by the Crime Branch in Panvel and Karjat in neighbouring Raigad district, leading to the arrest of these five persons for conspiracy related to the crime and its execution, he said.

The arrested persons were also in touch with the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, which is accused of gunning down Baba Siddique, the official added.

“The total number of arrests in the case now stands at nine. Further probe is underway,” he added.

Baba Siddique was shot at and grievously injured on October 12 near his MLA son Zeeshan Siddique’s office in Nirmal Nagar in Mumbai’s Bandra area. The Congress-turned-NCP leader died some time later in nearby Lilavati Hospital.

The four persons arrested earlier include two alleged shooters who were overpowered by police and passersby at the spot itself. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

A week after former Maharashtra minister Baba Siddique’s murder, the Crime Branch of Mumbai Police will record statements of his security personnel again, as part of the investigation. Baba Siddique had ‘2+1′ security which means, two security guards during the day and one at night. Last week, on October 12, Mr Siddique was shot dead outside the office of his son, MLA Zeeshan Siddique, in Bandra East.

READ | “Need Justice, My Family Needs Justice”: MLA Zeeshan Siddique On Father’s Murder

When Mr Siddique went to Bandra East, he had two security guards tagging along. But before he left his son’s office, around 8:30 pm, one of the two security guards had left the location. This means, Mr Siddique had only one security guard with him who did not retaliate at the time of shooting, sources said.

Mr Siddique, 66, was killed around 9:30 pm, under the cover of a Dussehra procession and fireworks.

A reconstruction of the assassination explains that the three shooters and a co-conspirator had stationed themselves close to Mr Siddique’s waiting car. As he came out of the office and tried to get inside the car, the killers let off some device that covered the area in thick smoke. Many thought it was the smoke from the firecrackers, which also masked the noise of gunshots.

READ | 65 Bullets, YouTube Videos, Bikes: How Baba Siddique Murder Was Planned

All three shooters were carrying chili powder with them. As soon as bullets were fired, they threw chili powder at the police constable.

The third security guard, who was with the late Mr Siddique, claimed that something like chili went into his eyes. Therefore, he couldn’t do anything at the moment, sources revealed.

Mumbai Police will now record the statement of the three security guards again in detail.

The three shooters fired six rounds, hitting Mr Siddique on the chest and stomach. One of his aides also sustained gunshot wounds.

The three killers involved are Gurmail Baljit Singh, 23, a resident of Haryana, and 19-year-old Dharmaraj Kashyap and Shiv Kumar Gautam, also known as Shiva, both from Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh. While Gurmail and Dharmaraj have been arrested, the third shooter is on the run.

Mumbai Police’s crime branch has also arrested 28-year-old Pravin Lonkar, a “co-conspirator” in the case, from Pune and Harishkumar Balakram Nisad, 23, from Uttar Pradesh.

READ | Video From Minutes After Baba Siddique’s Murder Shows Shooter’s Arrest