New Delhi: Five more persons were arrested on Friday by the Mumbai Police in connection with the killing of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and three-time MLA Baba Siddique. With this, the total number of arrests in the murder case has gone up to 9.
The arrested persons were sent to police custody by a Metropolitan Magistrate court in Mumbai till October 25. The police conducted raids in Karjat, Dombivli and Navi Mumbai and made the arrests. The raids were carried out based on specific information.
As per the police, the five persons were in contact with the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, whose members are suspected of having a hand in the murder of Baba Siddique. “The total number of arrests in the case now stands at nine. Further probe is underway,” a police officer was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
Sixty-six-year-old Baba Siddique, a former Congress leader who had joined the Ajit Pawar’s NCP this year, was gunned down by three persons in front of his son Zeeshan’s office in Mumbai on October 12.
Earlier, the Mumbai Police arrested four persons — Gurmail Baljit Singh (23) of Haryana, Dharmaraj Rajesh Kashyap (19) of Uttar Pradesh, Harishkumar Balakram Nisad (23), and Pravin Lonkar in connection with the murder. Pravin Lonkar’s brother, Shubham Lonkar, had reportedly written a Facebook post stating that the Lawrence Bishnoi gang was behind Baba Siddique’s murder. He is on the run. Interestingly, Shubham had earlier faced police interrogation in June after firing outside actor Salman Khan’s house in Bandra. He had been granted bail.
Three weapons — a sophisticated Australian-made Glock pistol, a Turkish pistol, and a country revolver — have been sent to the forensic laboratory for matching with the bullets recovered from Baba Siddique’s body.
