Mumbai: A city court on Monday (October 21) extended the police remand of four accused till October 25 in the killing of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and former Maharashtra minister Baba Siddique on October 12 in Bandra area of the city.
Four accused – Haryana resident Gurmail Baljit Singh (23), Uttar Pradesh residents Dharmaraj Kashyap (21), Harish Kumar Nisad (26) and Pune-based Pravin Lonkar (30) – were produced before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (Esplanade court) VR Patil on Monday after the expiry of their earlier police remand granted by the court earlier.
Siddique was shot at by three persons just outside office of his MLA son Zeeshan Siddique
Siddique was shot at by three persons just outside the office of his son Zeeshan Siddique, an MLA, on October 12. He was rushed to Lilavati Hospital after being grievously injured by the firing, however, he died later.
Accused were not cooperating with investigation, police told court
The police urged the court on Monday to grant further remand of the four, submitting that they were not cooperating with the investigation and were giving misleading information.
The court, after hearing submissions made by the police, extended the police custody of four accused, news agency PTI reported.
What has the police said on the role of accused persons?
As per the police, Singh and Kashyap, and wanted accused Shivkumar Gautam fired at Siddique on October 12, while Pravin Lonkar’s brother Shubham Lonkar is allegedly associated with jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi. The police has said that Shubham Lonkar and other wanted accused had conspired to carry out the shooting and they had supplied arms to the gunmen, who attacked Siddique and Nisad, a scrap dealer in Pune, provided financial help for the operation.
Court earlier remanded four accused to police custody till October 21
The court had earlier remanded the four accused to the police custody till October 21.
The prosecution earlier had told the court that it needed the custody of accused Pravin Lonkar to interrogate him to unearth the conspiracy behind the killing of Siddique, saying that his custody is required as he needs to be taken to Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar for further probe into the case. The police, while seeking custody of Nishad earlier, submitted that they needed to find details of the financial transactions and who sponsored them.
