Baba Siddique murder: Mumbai police issue look-out circular against three

The Mumbai police probing the murder of NCP leader Baba Siddique have issued a look-out circular (LOC) against three accused, including main shooter Shivkumar Gautam, to prevent them from fleeing the country, an official said on Thursday.

The other two accused named in the LOC are the co-conspirator Shubham Lonkar and suspected handler Mohammed Zeeshan Akhtar.

Crime branch teams of the Mumbai police have been sent to various parts of the country to nab the accused, the official said.

The LOC has been issued since the accused might attempt to flee the country. As per the circular, all seaports and airports have been put on alert to apprehend them, he said.

Siddique (66), a former Maharashtra minister, was shot dead on October 12 night outside his MLA son Zeeshan Siddique's office in Mumbai's upscale Bandra.

Police have so far 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 and Shubham Lonkar's brother Pravin Lonkar, who hails from Pune.

A Mumbai police team will also visit Maharashtra's Akola district, where the Lonkar brothers' parents live, he said. Police will speak to them to gather inputs about Shubham Lonkar's whereabouts.

It is suspected that it was Shubham Lonkar who wrote on Facebook that the Lawrence Bishnoi gang was behind Siddique's murder.

Comedian and Bigg Boss 17 winner Munawar Faruqui is also on the hit list of the Bishnoi gang, the official said.

Citing their investigation, the police official said the Lonkar brothers had given Rs 5 lakh in cash to the shooters through Nisad. Shubham used to run a dairy in Pune. He was arrested in January in an Arms Act case registered in Akola district, leading to the recovery of more than ten firearms, an official said.

Shubham's interrogation had shown that he had been communicating with gangster Lawrence Bishnoi's brother Anmol, police had said earlier. After securing bail, Shubham became untraceable on September 24 despite being on police radar.

Gautam was hired as the main shooter as he knew how to operate guns, which he had learnt during celebratory firings at weddings, police had said earlier citing the interrogation of Singh and Kashyap.

It was Gautam who trained Kashyap and Singh in handling firearms at a rented house in Kurla, where they performed dry practice (shooting without bullets) for want of open space. They learnt how to load and unload the weapon by watching YouTube videos for nearly four weeks.

The house was taken on lease with the help of an online portal, he said.

Meanwhile, Siddique's son and MLA Zeeshan Siddique on Thursday again visited Mumbai police headquarters.

He met Mumbai Police Commissioner Vivek Phansalkar and discussed the ongoing investigation into his father's killing, sources said, adding he also shared some information he had concerning the incident.