3rd accused in Baba Siddique murder case sent to police custody

A Mumbai court on Monday remanded the third person arrested for the killing of Nationalist Congress Party leader and former Maharashtra minister Baba Siddique to police custody till October 21.

The accused, Pravin Lonkar, was arrested on Sunday from Pune and is accused of enlisting two of the three alleged shooters who opened fire at Siddique on Saturday night in Mumbai's Bandra area.

He was produced before the court of magistrate V R Patil where the police sought his custody for interrogation to unearth the conspiracy behind the sensational killing.

As per the police, Pravin Lonkar's brother Shubham is allegedly associated with jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi.

The prosecution claimed Shubham Lonkar and other wanted accused had conspired the shooting and supplied arms to the gunmen who attacked the 66-year-old politician, a former MLA from Bandra (West).

They informed the court that Pravin Lonkar has to be taken to Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar for further probe into the case and hence his custody was required.

Pravin Lonkar's advocate Prashant Badkar refuted the allegations and said his client was being made a 'scapegoat' as the police were unable to apprehend Shubham Lonkar.

The advocate maintained the killing was a sensitive case, but there cannot be any allegations of conspiracy against Pravin Lonkar, who runs a dairy shop.

The magistrate, after hearing both sides, remanded Pravin Lonkar to police custody till October 21.

Two of the arrested shooters in the case, Gurmail Baljit Singh, 23, a resident of Haryana, Dharmaraj Rajesh Kashyap, 19, a native of Uttar Pradesh, are also in police custody till next Monday.

The NCP leader was waylaid by three persons at Kher Nagar in Bandra just outside his MLA-son Zeeshan Siddique's office and shot at on Saturday night. He was rushed to Lilavati Hospital where he was declared dead.

The Mumbai police's crime branch has so far arrested two shooters, while the third gunman, Shivkumar Gautam, was still at large.

As per the police, Pravin Lonkar and his brother Shubham 'enlisted' Kashyap and Gautam to carry out the shooting.

Shubham Lonkar was yet to be apprehended.

The police had recovered two pistols and 28 live bullets from the two arrested shooters.

The police were also verifying a social media post, attributed to a purported member of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, owning up to the murder of Siddique.

The crime branch was looking into various angles, including a possible contract killing, business or political rivalry or threat over a slum rehabilitation project, to establish the motive behind the murder, committed just ahead of the Maharashtra assembly polls.

Siddique was laid to rest on Sunday night with state honours in the presence of a large number of people and political leaders across the spectrum amid tight security.

After spending decades in the Congress, Siddique, who won from Mumbai's Bandra West assembly seat in 1999, 2004 and 2009, joined Ajit Pawar's NCP earlier this year. The politician had earned praise for supplying life-saving medicines to patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.

He was also known for his grand 'Iftar' parties that were attended by top Bollywood actors.

A prominent Muslim leader from Mumbai, Siddique was known to be close to several Bollywood stars, including Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and Sanjay Dutt.