Almost a week after NCP politician Baba Siddique was shot dead, a photograph of his son Zeeshan Siddique was found on one of the shooter’s phone during the investigation, the Mumbai Police said on Saturday.
The police confirmed that the picture was shared with the shooter by his handler through Snapchat, a messaging application. The investigators added that the shooters and the conspirators used the application to communicate.
“Investigation revealed that the shooters and conspirators used Snapchat to share information with messages being deleted after instructions were given,” the Mumbai police was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
Baba Siddique, a former Maharashtra minister and a senior leader of the NCP led by Ajit Pawar, was killed after being shot by three individuals in Bandra East, Mumbai, on October 12 evening.
Shooters Received Target Details By Their Handler
The shooters were provided with the details of their target by their handler, who is believed to be Shubham Lonkar, linked to the notorious gangster Lawrence Bishnoi’s gang.
A day after Baba Siddique’s death, Shubham’s brother Pravin Lonkar put up a post on Facebook claiming that the Lawrence Bishnoi gang was behind the murder.
The Mumbai Police earlier arrested four persons, including Haryana resident Gurmail Baljit Singh (23), Uttar Pradesh native Dharmaraj Rajesh Kashyap (19), both alleged shooters; Harishkumar Balakram Nisad (23), and “co-conspirator” Pravin Lonkar, who hails from Pune.
The Mumbai Police on Friday arrested five more people in connection with the murder of former Maharashtra minister Baba Siddique. With these arrests, the total number of accused held till now has reached nine.
The official identified the five accused as Nitin Gautam Sapre (32), Sambhaji Kisan Pardhi (44), Pradeep Dattu Thombre (37), Chetan Dilip Pardhi and Ram Fulchand Kanoujia (43).
Main accused Shivkumar Gautam, who allegedly fired six rounds at Baba Siddique, of which two hit the target, is still absconding. The cops have formed several teams to capture the accused.
The Mumbai Crime Branch mentioned on Saturday that the arrested accused Ram Kanojia revealed during interrogation that he was the first who was given the contract to kill the NCP leader and he had initially demanded one crore rupees.
According to his statement, a fugitive accused Shubham Lonkar had first given the contract to kill Baba Siddiqui to Ram Kanojia. Kanojia had demanded a fee of one crore rupees for carrying out the murder.
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