Cops fan out across states to nail Siddique’s killers

Mumbai A court in Mumbai sent Pravin Lonkar, the third accused arrested in the Baba Siddique murder case, to police custody till October 21 on Monday, even as teams of cops fanned out across other parts of the country to hunt for three more suspects, including two they describe as holding the key to the conspiracy.
According to police officials who asked not to be named, the two — Shiva Kumar Gautam from Bharaich in Uttar Pradesh and Shubham Lonkar from Pune — are part of the crucial link that can tie the brazen Saturday evening killing of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader to jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi.
Gautam fired the shots that killed Siddique and was hired by Lonkar, who recruited two others for the hit as well. After the shooting, Dharamraj Kashyap and Germail Singh, who were with Gautam when he fired the shots and have since been captured, ran in a different direction, possibly to distract and divide the police security with Siddique, one of the officials said on the condition of anonymity.
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The Mumbai Police on Monday submitted to a local court that the plot to murder Siddique was helmed by Lonkar and his brother Praveen, who was arrested late on Sunday from Pune by the Mumbai Police Crime Branch. The brothers provided the money — ₹50,000 to each of the three men, weapons and logistical support, said this official, and added that the hired assassins had been sent to Mumbai a month ago and housed in Kurla from where they conducted their reconnaissance.
“This (the murder) is a complete failure on the part of the Mumbai police — they had no intelligence about the planning or that the shooters had entered city limits, and subsequently too we failed to nab the main shooter,” conceded a senior IPS officer.
This happened, the officer said, because the police force has lost its network of informants. Police are now scrutinising the CCTV footage in and around Bandra (east) to understand the possible route used by him to escape. “We have had little luck so far,” the officer added.
The Mumbai Police have set up 15 teams that have spread beyond Maharashtra, focusing their efforts on Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Bihar in their search for Gautam. Joint teams of police from Mumbai and MP have been scouring places of worship in Ujjain and Khandwa districts, including the famous Mahakal and Omkareshwar temples.
“A Mumbai Police team in collaboration with MP police is looking for the accused. They suspect he might be hiding in MP and searching him in Ujjain district and Omkareshwar (in Khandwa district) of MP,” a police officer told PTI on Sunday.
In Mumbai, the Esplanade court sent Praveen Lonkar to police custody until October 21. The prosecution argued that Shubham Lonkar and other wanted accused had conspired in the shooting and supplied arms to the gunmen, emphasising the need for Praveen’s custody to facilitate further investigations in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Bihar.
In addition to Shubham Lonkar and Gautam, police are also hunting for Yaseen Akhtar, a 21-year-old described by police as involved in providing logistics to Siddique’s killers. Known also as “Jaisy Silander” or “Julmi”, Akhtar’s criminal history spans nine heinous cases across Jalandhar district in Punjab and two in Kaithal, Haryana, police in these two states told HT.
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Nakodar Deputy Superintendent of Police Sukhpal Singh stated, “He is facing serious criminal charges, such as murder, attempt to murder and dacoity.” Akhtar, who was arrested in June 2022 and released in June 2024, is suspected to have links with gangster Vikram Brar and has not visited his village since his release.
The other absconding suspect, Shiv Kumar Gautam from Uttar Pradesh’s Bahraich district, had no prior criminal record in his hometown but had recently taken to social media to flaunt his “gangster” status. His Instagram account, which saw a surge in followers from 299 on Sunday to 504 on Monday, featured posts with captions like “Yaar tera gangster hai jaani” (Your friend is a gangster) and “Sharif baap hai # (expletives) hum nahin”.
Questions still persist about the motive of the killing, which holds implications for the state elections that are likely to be announced within the month. Siddique, 66, was ambushed and shot outside his MLA son Zeeshan Siddique’s office in Bandra on Saturday night. The incident sent shockwaves in the city and the film industry, in which he had close ties with some of the biggest celebrities.
An official associated with the investigation explained Shubham Lonkar’s possible connection to Bishnoi, citing his statements to police in January when he was arrested by police in Akola under the Arms Act for supplying weapons to others. During that investigation, the police found evidence he had been in touch through WhatsApp with Lawrence Bishnoi, who is lodged at Sabarmati jail, and his brother Anmol Bishnoi who allegedly operates in concert with Lawrence from outside of India.
The Lonkar brothers were among 10 men arrested in that case. On Sunday, a day after the murder, Akola police revisited the case and connected with eight of them. The two men they could not locate were the Lonkar brothers, which prompted a search for and led to the arrest of Pravin.
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Shubham Lonkar, at the time of his interrogation in the Arms Act case, said he met a man named Bajra two years earlier when he went to an Indian Army recruitment drive. “At the recruitment drive, he said, he met a person identified as a certain Bajra, who told him that if Shubham wanted to work for the country he could introduce him to somebody who too works for the country, which was Lawrence Bishnoi,” said this official.
“After he was introduced to Bishnoi, Lonkar even formed a WhatsApp group with some other men in the area where he spoke of the need to eliminate all rapists,” said a police officer close to the interrogation.
Lonkar also allegedly told Akola police that after joining the Bishnoi gang he had been sent to two training camps in Azerbaijan and Nepal where he was trained in handling sophisticated weapons. The weapons used in Siddique’s murder were imported 9mm Glocks.
A month after their arrest in Akola, the Lonkar brothers were released on bail in February this year, and moved to Pune which is when the Akola police stopped keeping tabs on them. Mumbai police say prima facie it now appears that Shubham Lonkar organised Baba Siddique’s killing but they will still need to locate him to make their case.
(With PTI inputs)