New Delhi: The plan to gun down Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and former state minister Baba Siddiqui was orchestrated from Canada by gangster Anmol Bishnoi, the brother of jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, the Mumbai Crime Branch has said.
This was revealed during questioning of two accused — Ramphool Kanjoia and Nitin Sapre, the police said. According to the police, Anmol Bishnoi orchestrated the attack through another suspect, Sujit Sushilsingh, who is also known as Dabbu. The cops said that Dabbu arranged the murder weapons from Rajasthan and provided financial backing to the assailants. He directed the hired assailants to carry out recee of Siddiqui’s house and surroundings a month before the murder was executed. Police contended that they also recovered a fifth weapon from Sujit.
Anmol Bishnoi supplied photos of Baba Siddique, Zeeshan to assailants
It is also suspected that Anmol supplied the assailants with photographs of Baba Siddique and his son, Zeeshan Siddique, through Snapchat to carry out the killing. Currently, Anmol is facing 18 criminal cases and is hiding in Canada.
In April, Anmol had posted on Facebook claiming responsibility for the shooting outside Salman Khan’s residence in Bandra. Anmol Bishnoi has been identified as an absconding suspect in the shooting at the Bollywood actor’s house, and in a plot to murder him at his farmhouse in Panvel, as per records of Navi Mumbai police. Anmol Bishnoi is also accused of providing arms and logistical support to those behind the murder of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala on May 29, 2022.
According to the police, while Dabbu and a few others who were recently arrested were further remanded to police custody, the first three accused, Dharamraj Kashyap, Pravin Lonkar, and Gurnail Singh, were remanded to judicial custody. Dabbu was nabbed from Ludhiana on Friday. He played a key role as a middleman, connecting Anmol Bishnoi’s contract with the assailants.
Rs 10 lakh bounty on Anmol Bishnoi
Anmol Bishnoi has been added to the most-wanted list of the National Investigation Agency (NIA). NIA has also announced a bounty of Rs 10 lakh for the arrest of Anmol Bishnoi. The NIA also registered a case against nine accused, including Anmol and Lawrence, in 2022 for participating in a plot to “raise funds, recruit youth to carry out terrorist acts in Delhi and other parts of the country” apart from “targeted killings of prominent persons”.
