Baba Siddique murder: Mystery over killing deepens as Lawrence Bishnoi gang claims responsibility

'We do not have any enmity with anyone but whoever helps Salman Khan and the Dawood gang, keep your accounts in order,' read the Facebook post in Hindi by 'Shibu Lonkar', believed to be the Bishnoi gang associate Shubham Rameshwar Lonkar.

Mumbai: A day after veteran politician and former minister Baba Siddique was shot dead, the mystery deepened over the killing even as the Lawrence Bishnoi gang claimed the responsibility of the sensational murder that shook Maharashtra’s political class.

The Mumbai Police has formed 15 teams and several detectives have been fanned out to multiple locations in five states in search of the killers.

The police are probing different angles, including a possible contract killing, business rivalry, personal disputes or threat over a slum rehabilitation project in Mumbai.

Any international links to the crime is also under investigation.

Siddique (66) was shot outside the office of his son Zeeshan Siddique, an MLA near the Colgate Ground in Nirmal Nagar near Khetwadi in Bandra East.

He was rushed to the Lilavati Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on admission.

On Sunday morning, the post-mortem was conducted at the Cooper Hospital after which the body was handed over to the family for cremation at the Bada Kabrastan in Marine Lines.

After the FIR at the Nirmal Nagar police station, the Crime Branch-CID took over the investigations.

Two of the shooters - Gurmail Singh (23) from Haryana and Dharamraj Kashyap from Uttar Pradesh were caught by locals and police personnel.

Singh was remanded to police custody till 21 October by a holiday Magistrate’s court.

Kashyap claimed that he was a minor and hence the court ordered a bone ossification test to ascertain his age.

The third shooter Shiv Kumar Gautam managed to escape from the spot, however, efforts are on to track him down.

Police teams are looking for Mohammad Zeeshan Akhtar, the fourth accused, who is suspected to be the handler and is on a run.

After the incident, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde spoke to Deputy Chief Ministers Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar to review the situation.

“The police are thoroughly investigating the incident. The culprits in this incident will not be spared at all, no matter who they are. Strict action will be taken against the culprits,” said Fadnavis, who is the state’s Home Minister.

“Fifteen teams of the Crime Branch are on the job,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Detection) Datta Nalawade said.

Asked whether any possible role of Lawrence Bishnoi is being probed, he said: “All angles including the Lawrence Bishnoi angle are being examined by the police.”

The Lawrence Bishnoi gang has not only claimed responsibility for the murder of Baba Siddique but also threatened anyone who helps actor Salman Khan.

A post on Facebook by one Shibu Lonkar, believed to be Bishnoi gang associate Shubham Rameshwar Lonkar, claimed the responsibility. A police team is in Pune to track him down.

In the post, Lonkar claimed that Siddique had been killed because he was linked to India's most wanted terrorist Dawood Ibrahim, was also close to Salman Khan and because of the death of Anuj Thapan, one of the arrested suspects in the shooting outside Mr Khan's house, in police custody.

"We do not have any enmity with anyone but whoever helps Salman Khan and the Dawood gang, keep your accounts in order," Lonkar wrote in Hindi on Facebook.

Asked about this, police said that the veracity is being checked.

It may be mentioned in 2018, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached Rs 462 crore worth property as part of a probe involving an SRA scam during the tenure of Siddique as MHADA Chairman.