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NCP leader Baba Siddique was shot dead outside his son’s office in Mumbai. (ANI)
The Mumbai Police said the plan to kill Baba Siddique began three months ago when the accused visited his house several times without weapons. They also undertook a reconnaissance 25 days before the incident
The two accused initially arrested in the Baba Siddique case watched YouTube videos to learn shooting and did “dry practice” at a Kurla house rented in the name of the third accused shooter, who is on the run. The investigation has also revealed that all the accused used social media apps like Snapchat and Instagram to communicate, the Mumbai Police said.
According to the Mumbai Crime Branch, the two accused shooters — Gurmail Singh and Dharamraj Kashyap — learned to shoot by watching videos on YouTube and would practice shooting without a magazine in Mumbai. They were given Siddique’s banner photo to practise target shooting without bullets.
On Tuesday, a 7.62 mm pistol was recovered from a black bag found near the crime scene. The crime branch has arrested four accused so far, while three are still on the run, in the murder of former NCP leader Baba Siddique. He was shot at on the night of October 12 near his son and MLA Zeeshan Siddique’s office in Mumbai’s Bandra, and later succumber to his injuries at Lilavati hospital.
Arrested earlier in the day, the fourth accused — identified as 23-year-old Harishkumar Balakram Nisad — provided money and weapons for the crime by functioning as the middleman. Pravin Lonkar, another accused in custody, and his brother Shubham Lonkar, one of the accused on the run, gave Rs 2 lakh to Gurmail and Dharamraj, and this money was delivered by Harishkumar, police said.
The Mumbai Police said Harishkumar, who has lived in Pune for the past nine years, also gave two mobile phones to the accused shooters. The investigation also shows that the accused used social media to communicate — Snapchat to pass on messages and Instagram to make calls, police said.
Conspiracy to kill Siddique started 3 months ago, murder planned in Pune
The investigation has further revealed that the plan to kill Baba Siddique began three months ago when the accused visited his house several times without weapons. Police said the accused also undertook a reconnaissance of the politician’s house 25 days before the incident.
In this regard, officials said the crime branch has seized an Apache motorbike allegedly used to conduct a recce of Siddique’s residence ‘Maqba Heights’ and his office in Kher Nagar.
According to the information received from the crime branch, the entire murder plan was drawn up in Pune. The accused then moved to Mumbai and were here for one-and-a-half months before the crime, an official said.
So far, the statements of more than 15 people, including many eyewitnesses present at the time of the incident, have been recorded.
