Baba Siddique shot dead: The Mumbai Police, who are looking into Baba Siddique’s murder, have disclosed that the five suspects who were just detained had originally demanded ₹50 lakh for the assassination, but they later withdrew their demands because of disagreements over the amount and the Nationalist Congress Party leader’s influence.
They did, however, continue to offer assistance, both logistical and otherwise, to those engaged in carrying out the murder, according to news agency PTI, which cited anonymous officials.
These five people were taken into custody by the criminal branch on Friday for allegedly providing the gunmen with weapons and support services. This brings the overall number of arrests in this case to nine.
Currently, three major suspects are free. Nitin Gautam Sapre (32), Sambhaji Kisan Pardhi (44), Pradeep Dattu Thombre (37), Chetan Dilip Pardhi (27), and Ram Fulchand Kanoujia (43), were the names of the people who were taken into custody. Police say that Sapre is from Dombivli, Pardhi, Thombre, and Pardhi are from Ambernath in the Thane district, and Kanoujia lives in Panvel in Raigad.
“The police discovered during their questioning that the Sapre-led module had asked the mediator for ₹50 lakh in order to assassinate NCP leader Baba Siddique. However, that was unsuccessful. Therefore, they chose to withdraw due to the disagreement over the contract, an official was quoted by PTI on Saturday.
Furthermore, Nitin Gautam Sapre knew that killing Baba Siddique would be extremely problematic for his module because he was a well-known politician. Thus, the official said, they made the decision not to proceed.
“But the accused persons decided to give logistical support to the new shooters and provide other help,” he continued.
According to another official, investigators have discovered that, prior to the shooting, Mohammed Zeeshan Akhtar, the mastermind, and conspirator Shubham Lonkar were in communication with the module headed by Nitin Gautam Sapre.
The person also stated that the police are currently investigating if Shubham and Akhtar were responsible for delivering the plan to kill the NCP leader to Sapre’s group via the Lawrence Bishnoi gang.
Police had already detained four people: Harishkumar Balakram Nisad (23), Pravin Lonkar, the brother of “co-conspirator” Shubham Lonkar from Pune, and suspected shooters Gurmail Baljit Singh (23), from Haryana, and Dharmaraj Rajesh Kashyap (19), from Uttar Pradesh. Former Maharashtra minister Baba Siddique, 66, was shot and killed on October 12 in the Bandra neighborhood of Mumbai, outside the office of his son Zeeshan Siddique, an MLA. Mohammed Zeeshan Akhtar, Shubham Lonkar, and Shivkumar Gautam, the principal shooter, are still at large. For the three fugitives, the police have issued a look-out circular (LOC).
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