Three persons shot dead Baba Siddique on Saturday
The three men who shot dead politician Baba Siddique on Saturday threw chilli powder at the police constable who was guarding the former Maharashtra minister, sources said. Mr Siddique, a three-time MLA, was killed as he left his son, MLA Zeeshan Siddique's office in Mumbai's Bandra East on Saturday evening.
Among the three shooters, Gurmel Baljit Singh, 23, a resident of Haryana and 19-year-old Dharmaraj Kashyap of Uttar Pradesh have been arrested. The third shooter, Shivkumar Gautam from Uttar Pradesh, is still on the run.
According to their plan, Singh and Kashyap were to shoot the 66-year-old NCP leader under the cover of a Dussehra procession and fireworks. However, after seeing the crowd of people and security around Mr Siddique, Shivkumar said he would shoot first.
All three shooters were carrying chilli powder and pepper spray with them. As soon as Shivkumar fired six bullets at Mr Siddique, they threw chilli powder at the police constable. Shivkumar then fled after hiding in the crowd, but Singh and Kashyap were caught. Two pistols and 28 live rounds were recovered from them.
Baba Siddique was provided a non-categorised security and was allotted three police constables, who worked in three shifts. At the time of the shooting, one policeman was accompanying Mr Siddique.
According to sources, the arrested shooters told police that Shivkumar was the leader of the pack. During interrogation, they also portrayed themselves as innocent and said only Shivkumar knew who the mastermind was behind the killing.
Lawrence Bishnoi's Gang Claims Responsibility For Baba Siddique's Murder
According to sources, the accused have claimed that they work for gangster Lawrence Bishnoi. Bishnoi, who is lodged at Gujarat's Sabarmati jail, was also involved in the shooting incident outside the Mumbai residence of Bollywood actor Salman Khan, who is known to have been a close friend of Baba Siddique.
The suspects had been monitoring Mr Siddique for months, conducting reconnaissance of his residence and office.
They were paid Rs 50,000 each in advance for the hit and the arms had been delivered to them only days before the assassination.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Sunday said the third accused in the Baba Siddique murder case will be arrested "soon".
"Be it the Bishnoi gang or any underworld gang, we won't spare anyone," he told reporters.
On Sunday evening, Mumbai Police's crime branch also arrested 28-year-old Pravin Lonkar, a "co-conspirator" in the case, from Pune. They said they were on the lookout for his brother, Shubham Lonkar.
The brothers had hatched the conspiracy of Mr Siddique's murder and enlisted Shivkumar and Kashyap in the plot.