Shiv Kumar, one of the suspected killers of Maharashtra politician Baba Siddique, shared a telling post on Instagram nearly three months ago. Wearing a white and grey chequered shirt and a pair of blue jeans, he was seen standing against a motorcycle. "Yaar tera gangster hai jaani (your friend is a gangster)," Kumar captioned the photo he posted on July 24.
"Sharif baap hai, hum nahin (my father is an honourable man, not me), read another post.
One of his posts, a brief video of the Mumbai skyline, featured a background score from 'KGF' - a film about a mercenary - with its dialogue "powerful people make places powerful".
His last post on Instagram was on August 4.
Kumar is one of the three shooters who fired multiple shots at the former minister of Maharashtra Baba Siddique in Bandra on Saturday night. While his accomplices - Gurmail Baljit Singh and Dharmaraj Rajesh Kashyap - were arrested the night of the crime, he managed to escape.
According to the police, Shiv Kumar reached Kurla station in a rickshaw from Bandra. Investigation revealed that the accused then took a train from Harbor Line from Kurla to Panvel station. He was last seen in Panvel and the police suspect he left the state by taking an express train from Panvel.
Two of the three alleged shooters in the case - Kumar and Kashyap - are from Gandara village in Bahraich in Uttar Pradesh. From poor families, both had moved to Pune from their village after Holi to earn money. When NDTV reached out to their families, they said they had no information about why and when they went to Mumbai. The third accused, Singh, is from Haryana.
Locals and police in the Gandara village said Kumar had no criminal history. They said that he had gone to work at a scrap shop in Pune.
Kumar's mother, Suman, expressed disbelief over the police's claim that his son was among those involved in the sensational killing of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and former lawmaker Siddique. The 66-year-old was outside his son Zeeshan Siddique's office in Kher Nagar in Mumbai's Bandra area when three people took cover of Dussehra fireworks and opened fire at him. Sources said the three men had thrown chilli powder at the police constable who was guarding Siddique.
Siddique was rushed to the nearby Lilavati Hospital, where he was declared dead.
The police have arrested three people in the high-profile killing, which has sparked a political controversy with opposition leaders slamming the Maharashtra government over "the condition of law and order" in the state.
Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, meanwhile, has assured that those responsible for Siddique's brutal murder will not escape justice.
On Sunday evening, a 28-year-old man was arrested from Pune. The police said the arrested man, Pravin Lonkar, was a "co-conspirator" and added that they were on the lookout for his brother, Shubham Lonkar.
According to the police, Shubham Lonkar posted on social media that the Lawrence Bishnoi gang has taken responsibility for the murder. His brother Pravin gave shelter to both the arrested accused in Pune.
A crime branch official on Sunday said Pravin and Shubham had enlisted two alleged shooters - Kashyap and Kumar.
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