Baba Siddique killing: How a 25-minute chase led to police nabbing 2 assailants

A 25-minute pursuit in the dark led to the capture of two assailants by policemen who first thought they were mobile thieves

MUMBAI: The detection team of the Nirmal Nagar police on Saturday night nabbed the two alleged assailants of ex-state minister and senior NCP leader Baba Siddique after a 100-metre hide-and-seek chase in the dark, which lasted around 25 minutes.

The Nirmal Nagar police on Saturday night nabbed the two alleged assailants of ex-state minister and senior NCP leader Baba Siddique. (Ganesh Gambre)

The police officers were posted for bandobast duty on the concluding day of the Dussehra festival at Nirmal Nagar for crowd control and to ensure that the organisers adhered to the 10 pm loudspeaker time. At 9.15 pm, they were near the office of Zeeshan Siddique, Baba’s son, when they heard loud sounds. “We assumed that they came from firecrackers being burst,” they said, “but almost instantly, we saw two men fleeing from the spot near the Kherwadi traffic junction.” Assuming they were mobile phone thieves, a group of two police sub-inspectors (PSIs), one assistant sub-inspector (ASI) and two constables began chasing the duo without wasting even a fraction of a second.

The officers said that the sharpshooters had not studied the topography of the area, and instead of running towards the Western Express Highway, two of them jumped over the barbed-wire walls and entered the adjacent compound of the National Society For Clean Cities India (NSCCI) Children’s Complex, which is behind a polytechnic college. The third assailant, however, fled amid the dispersing crowd due to which he could not be nabbed.

A senior police officer said that the officers of the detection staff, PSI Sudarshan Bankar, PSI Shailesh Choudhary and ASI Rajendra Dabade, were not carrying their pistols, and as soon as they received calls from the spot that Siddique had been shot, they knew that the men they were chasing were not thieves but shooters who were armed. “The officers were scared that if they intercepted the assailants without their pistols, they could be shot at and more lives of innocent people would be lost. They were told that three shooters were spotted but it was difficult for them to ascertain the exact number, and so they were wary,” said an officer.

PSI Bankar and his team of eight police personnel then called for a back-up from the police station. Their weapons arrived within five minutes, along with another detection officer from Vakola, PSI Vishal Palande, and his team. “The officers knew that the men were in the NSCCI which has several tall trees and green cover,” the officer told HT.

The policemen then called out to the park’s watchman, Anwar Khan. “I was preparing for dinner when there was a loud thud on the gate,” Khan told HT. “When I asked who it was, the officers said that they were police and that a firing had taken place. I let them inside, after which I learnt that the shooters had jumped the wall and were hiding inside.”

Within five minutes, constables Sandeep Ahwad and Sangram Artige had spotted one of the two men, Dharamraj Kashyap, with his pistol (a fabricated Glock), which had a magazine in it with 10 rounds. As the team approached him, assuming that they would fire, Singh dropped his weapon and surrendered without putting up any resistance.

For the next 15 minutes, the police officers launched a hunt for the second assailant, Gurmail Singh, who was hiding in the park, taking advantage of the green cover and darkness. “They cornered Singh, who had scattered three bullets in the grass. He dropped his foreign-made Glock pistol and surrendered when he knew that he had been surrounded,” said the officer.

The officer added that the duo could have escaped if they had fled towards the highway, but since they were instructed to shoot and run and were unaware about the drain separating the highway and the service road towards Nirmal Nagar, they had no choice but to enter the compound of the NSCCI. Immediately after the arrest the officers led the men out of the area and handed them over to the crime branch.