Baba Siddique murder case: Man who procured guns arrested by Mumbai police
Mumbai crime branch arrests Bhagwat Singh Omsingh for aiding in NCP leader Baba Siddique's murder, marking the tenth arrest in the case
MUMBAI: The Mumbai crime branch on Sunday arrested Bhagwat Singh Omsingh, 32, for his alleged involvement in the murder of senior NCP leader Baba Siddique on October 12 in Bandra East. The tenth accused arrested so far, he was intercepted in Belapur, Navi Mumbai. Omsingh was produced in court on Sunday and remanded to police custody till October 26.
The police said that Omsingh, a native of Rajasthan who ran a scrap shop in Belapur, had confessed during his interrogation that he helped arrested accused Ram Kanaujia procure the weapons that were used in the murder. He said that he and Kanaujia had visited North Rajasthan near the India-Pakistan border, and, in the two days that they were there, collected a Turkey-made Tisas, an Austrian Glock and a country-made pistol before returning to Mumbai.
A police officer said that Omsingh was being interrogated to find out what the mode of travel for the trip was and from whom the duo had collected the weapons. “Apart from the weapons, Omsingh also allegedly gave the gang members over five lakh rupees in cash which had earlier been delivered to him by other senior members of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang,” he said.
After the murder, the Mumbai police had arrested two shooters—Gurmail Singh and Dharmaraj Kashyap—from near the crime scene after a 25-minute chase while the alleged main shooter, Shiv Kumar Gautam, managed to flee after firing six bullets at Siddique, three of which hit him. After the interrogation of the arrested shooter duo, the police arrested the third accused, Pravin Lonkar, on October 13 from Pune. Pravin is the elder brother of the alleged main conspirator, Subham Lonkar, who is still at large.
The fourth accused, Harish Kumar Balaram Nishad, was arrested at his native place in Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh, on October 15 for allegedly helping Gautam and Kashyap. Nishad ran a scrap shop in Pune where Gautam and Kashyap worked. He was involved in the planning of the murder, said a police officer.
After questioning shooters Kashyap and Gurmail, the police managed to arrest five more accused on October 18: Nitin Gautam Sapre 35, Sambhaji Kisan Pardhi 44, Pradeep Dattu Thombre 37, Chetan Dilip Pardhi, 27, and Ram Fulchand Kanaujia 43. Sapre is from Dombivli, while Sambhaji Pardhi, Thombre and Chetan Pardhi are from Ambernath. Kanaujia is a resident of Panvel.
“When the police questioned the accused, they learnt that Sapre was a history sheeter who had several cases against him,” said the police officer. “Sapre, Chetan Pardhi and Sambhaji Pardhi killed one Somnath Pardhi in 2015 and got out on bail from Kalyan’s Atharwadi jail in 2017. In jail, they met Ram Kanaujia, who was lodged there in an attempt-to-murder case.” The police said that Sapre was allegedly in touch with Lawrence Bishnoi gang members and came in contact with key accused Shubham Lonkar and Mohammad Zeeshan Akthar, who is based in Jalandhar in Punjab.
How the murder conspiracy unfolded
“The contract to kill Siddique was first given to Sapre, Thombre, Kanaujia and the two Pardhis,” said a police officer. Sapre had asked Kanaujia to work on the murder contract—however, Kanaujia, being a local, after hearing Baba Siddiqui’s name, realised that the murder’s impact would be great, and so started demanding ₹50 lakh for the job. The group conducted a recce and two of them had even visited Bandra for this but backed out fearing that the repercussions would be too huge.”
Sapre, with the help of Shubham Lonkar, then allegedly decided to hire North India-based shooters and brought in Gurmail Singh, Dharmaraj Kashyap and Shivkumar Gautam. Mohammed Zeeshan provided them with the details of Gurmail, who was already in trouble, as his family had asked him to leave the house. Lonkar and Zeeshan, knowing that the shooters would require local help, asked Sapre and Kanaujia to carry out a reconnaissance, give the shooters shelter and arrange to hand over the weapons, said the police. The police believe that the weapons could even have come from outside India.