Former Maharashtra minister Baba Siddique’s shooters reportedly received a pistol through a prepaid courier service. The killers were possibly paid in advance and had met in Punjab jail, reports claimed on Sunday.
Siddique, a former Maharashtra minister and leader in Ajit Pawar’s faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), was shot near Nirmal Nagar in Bandra on Saturday. He later succumbed to his bullet injuries at Lilavati Hospital late Saturday night.
The police arrested two accused and made some shocking revelations about their planning. The two accused were identified as Gurmail Singh, a native of Haryana and Dharamraj Kashyap from Uttar Pradesh.
“The search for the third accused is on and several teams of the Mumbai Crime Branch are investigating this case,” the police were quoted by news agency PTI as saying.
Here’s what we know so far
1. According to the police, the accused were in Mumbai for some time and were keeping a close eye on Siddiqui, news agency PTI reported. The police also mentioned that the accused had done recce of Baba Siddiqui’s house and office premises and were in Mumbai for one and a half to two months and were keeping an eye on him.
2. Police said the accused were paid in advance for this work. “They had received arms delivery a few days ago,” the Mumbai Police said. Meanwhile, a police source told News 19 that the shooters received pistols through a prepaid courier service.
3. The shooters reportedly opened six rounds of fire from a 9.9 mm pistol, which was recovered by police. According to reports, six bullet shells were recovered from the crime scene. Three bullets struck Baba Siddique and one bullet hit a bystander standing nearby, News 18 reported.
“During the probe, police found the assailants fired at Baba Siddique when people started bursting firecrackers during a Durga visarjan procession,” a police official was quoted by the Hindustan Times as saying.
4. Mumbai police sources further alleged that the accused had been living in a rented room in Kurla since September 2. They paid a monthly rent of ₹14,000, News 18 reported. Each of them reportredly received ₹50,000 for a contract killing.
5. Sources also revealed that the three accused met while incarcerated in a jail in Punjab.
The case has been registered at Nirmal Nagar Police Station under Crime Registration No. 589/2024, Sections 103(1), 109, 125, and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), along with Sections 3, 25, 5, and 27 of the Arms Act, and Section 37 and section 137 of the Maharashtra Police Act.
