New Delhi: After three-time MLA and former Congress minister Baba Siddique was shot dead in front of his MLA son Zeeshan Siddique’s office on October 12, the name of jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi in connection with the killing made the rounds. However, according to a Times of India report, Mumbai cops are still struggling with divergent theories in the murder of Baba Siddique.
Recently, Shubam Lonkar, also called Shubbu, claimed responsibility of the killing on behalf of Lawrence Bishnoi’s gang through social media. However, authorities are still investigating if Lawrence Bishnoi himself approved the murder or whether the murder contract was taken without his knowledge, the report added.
As police has not been able to reach Lawrence Bishnoi, who is at present lodged in Sabarmati jail in Gujarat, the investigators have been left guessing about his direct role in the murder. There are suspicions that the suspects Shubam Lonkar, who is at large, Shivkumar Gautam, and Zeeshan Akhtar may have independently accepted the contract to kill Baba Siddique. This could be one of the various reasons the police consider the slum rehabilitation issue as a possible motive behind the murder.
Bishnoi gang leaders’ silence over murder
This possibility is being explored by the cops because leaders of Bishnoi’s gang, including his brother Anmol Bishnoi and close aide Rohit Godara, or Goldy Brar, who are based in Canada, have maintained silence over the matter. In most cases in the past, they have claimed or denied the involvement in the activities of the gang. Their mum over the murder has raised suspicion whether Lonkar’s claim and statement is genuine or not.
This year in April, Anmol Bishnoi had claimed responsibility for the shooting outside the house of Bollywood actor Salman Khan. He had indirectly threatened the actor that the next time, the bullets would not be aimed at walls or an empty residence.
Besides these, the cops are skeptical about the background of Lonkar. He is a class 12th pass from a Marathi school, and his limited proficiency in Hindi and Punjabi influence raises suspicions about the authorship of his social media posts. The police have raised doubts that someone else may have written the posts, which were then was forwarded to Lonkar, who shared them on Facebook before deleting them, the report pointed out.
