NCP Leader Baba Siddique Shot Dead: A Look At 13 Shootings That Left Mumbai Scarred & Scared

Baba Siddique, 66, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and former Maharashtra minister, was shot dead outside his MLA son Zeeshan’s office on Saturday night.

Siddique was cremated on Sunday night with state honours in the presence of a large number of people and political leaders across the spectrum amid tight security. Mumbai Police accorded a guard of honour to the NCP leader amid rain at Bada Kabrastan in the Marine Lines area.

Senior police officers, politicians cutting across party lines, and common people bid adieu to the 66-year-old former MLA, known for his close links with several Bollywood stars and builders.

Even as the investigation to find the mastermind, amid the arrest of the shooters, is on, here’s a look at the shootouts that shook Mumbai:

• February 8, 2024: Shiv Sena (UBT) corporator Abhishek Ghosalkar was shot dead by businessman Mauris Noronha alias ‘Mauris Bhai’ at the former’s Borivali office during a Facebook Live session. The businessman shot himself dead after the crime. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has now taken over the probe.
• December 24, 2023: Five people fired 21 rounds at local gangster Sumit Yerunkar, killing him and injuring four others in Chunabhatti. The police has so far arrested at least 16 people in connection with the shootout and Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) has been invoked. The hearing is on.
• June 11, 2011: Journalist J Dey was shot dead in broad daylight in Powai when he was on his way home on a bike. Four men on two bikes opened fire at him. Seven shooters from Chhota Rajan’s gang were held. Journalist Jigna Vora was arrested for allegedly providing Dey’s details to gangster Chhota Rajan. She is out on bail.
• March 2, 2007: Shiv Sena municipal councilor Kamlakar Jamsandekar was shot dead while watching television in his Andheri (East) home. He was killed on gangster Arun Gawli’s orders. Gawli has been sentenced to life imprisonment in the case.
• August 12, 1997: Gulshan Kumar, owner of T-Series, was shot dead when he came to visit a temple in Jeet Nagar. Kumar had been receiving ransom calls and had refused to pay Rs 10 crore. Abdul Rauf alias Dawood Merchant and his brother Abdul Rashid have been sentenced to life. They were hired by Bollywood music director Nadeem and gangster Abu Salem at the behest of Dawood Ibrahim.
• January 16, 1997: Datta Samant, 64, a trade union leader who had become a popular figure after the 1982 Great Bombay Textile strike, was killed on his way to his Pant Nagar office. Four men fired at Samant’s jeep, killing him and injuring his driver. In 2000, three members of the Rajan gang were convicted for the murder.
• November 13, 1995: Five men, including gangster Chhota Rajan’s trusted man Bunty Pandey, broke the windshield of Thakiyudeen Abdul Wahid’s car and pumped 30 bullets into his body. Wahid was the managing director of East West Airlines. The murder was revenge for Om Prakash Kukreja’s murder and because Rajan believed Dawood had invested money in East West Airlines. Pandey was extradited from Vietnam in 2010 and charged for Wahid’s murder, among 40 other cases. His hearings are on while he is lodged in Uttarakhand jail.
• September 1995: Builder Om Prakash Kukreja was shot dead at his office in Chembur. Salem had organised the hit because the D-Company felt he was financing Rajan. Gangster Ravi Pujari had ordered the hit. While Pujari has been extradited, the probe is going on parallely with the multiple against him.
• March 7, 1995: Builder Pradeep Jain was shot dead outside his Juhu bungalow. The attack on Jain was among the 16 attacks carried out on builders and real estate developers in Mumbai between 1994 and 1995 by gangster Dawood Ibrahim. The killing was order by Abu Salem, Ibrahim’s associate, for refusing to give away his property at Dongri to the gangster. Salem is serving life imprisonment in the case.
• August 25, 1994: BJP’s city unit president Ramdas Nayak was showered with bullets outside his house. The murder was ordered by Dawood’s aide Chhota Shakeel. Four were sentenced to five years’ rigorous imprisonment in connection with the case.
• May 7, 1994: Sunit Khatau, chairman and managing director Khatau Makanji Spinning and Weaving Company Ltd, was shot dead at a busy traffic signal on Mahalaxmi bridge. Of the two on a bike, one smashed the car’s bulletproof window with a hammer and then showered bullers. Amar Naik’s henchman Santosh Pangarkar was arrested for Khatau’s murder.
• June 1993: BJP leader Prem Kumar Sharma was shot dead as he stepped out of a car outside a restaurant. Manoj Gupta, employed by Dawood henchman Ejaz Pathan, was arrested and convicted in the case.
• The 1980s: In February 1981, Saabir Ibrahim Kaskar, brother of Dawood Ibrahim, was shot dead at a petrol pump opposite Siddhivinayak Temple. Dawood then ordered killing of all members of the Pathan gang started by Karim Lala. Amirzada Nawab Khan, one of Saabir’s killers, was killed outside Mumbai’s sessions court in September 1983, while Samad Khan was shot dead in a south Mumbai hotel in 1984. It started an era of violence, which was later broken by police with around a thousand encounters over two decades.