Baba Siddique murder case: Court extends police custody of shooter

Seven accused in the Baba Siddique murder case were presented in court; two main suspects remain at large. Police custody extended for main shooter Gautam.

MUMBAI: The Mumbai crime branch produced seven accused in the Baba Siddique murder case, including main shooter Shiv Kumar Gautam, before the Esplanade metropolitan magistrate court on Tuesday after their remand ended. The court extended police custody of Gautam while the other six were sent to judicial custody.

Baba Siddique murder case: Court extends police custody of shooter

Two main accused, Subham Lonkar and Zeeshan Akhtar, who allegedly planned the murder of the NCP leader, are still wanted even after nearly one and half months and their last location was traced to somewhere near Jama Masjid in Delhi in July.

Police officers said that after planning the murder and recruiting shooters in June, Lonkar and Akhtar fled from Pune and Haryana respectively and met in Delhi. The Mumbai crime branch has been taking help from six states - Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat - but has not been able to nab the duo.

The accused who were produced in the court on Tuesday are Gaurav Apune, Aditya Gulankar, Rafiqe Shaikh, Anurag Kashyap, Gyan Prakash Tripathi, Akash Shrivastava, Akhilendra Pratap Singh and Shiv Kumar Gautam. Shiv Kumar’s custody was extended till November 23 while the others were sent to judicial custody.

The crime branch arrested Akashdeep Karajsingh Gill on November 16 from Fazilka in Punjab, a town located just 11km from the Pakistan border. He, according to the police, was in direct touch with Anmol Bishnoi and was passing instructions to Sujit Singh alias Babbu and Subham Lonkar about Siddique’s murder. The police started digging the financial trail and arrested Salman Vohra, a native of Gujarat, on November 17 from Akola in Maharashtra. Police said he opened his bank account in Anand district of Gujarat in Karnataka Bank in May 2024, and ₹6 lakh was deposited in his account from an ATM through hawala channels. Vohra provided financial support to the accused in the case.

Till now, police have arrested a total of 25 accused in the case but still the motive is not clear. Authorities have confirmed accused Akashdeep Karajsingh Gill’s association with incarcerated gangster Lawrence Bishnoi.