Main accused in Baba Siddique murder case arrested in Uttar Pradesh, was in touch with Anmol Bishnoi

Mangalore Today News Network

Mumbai, November 11, 2024: Around a month after NCP leader Baba Siddique was shot dead in Bandra, the Mumbai Crime Branch, in a joint operation with Uttar Pradesh STF, arrested the main accused from UP’s Bahraich on Sunday.

Shiv Kumar Gautam alias Shiva was allegedly among the three shooters who fired three rounds at the former Maharashtra minister on October 12. The other two suspected shooters, Gurmail Singh from Haryana and Dharmaraj Kashyap from Uttar Pradesh, have already been arrested. Shiva was planning to flee to Nepal, the police said.

According to the police, Shiva was also in direct touch with gangster Anmol Bishnoi, brother of jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi. The Mumbai police have maintained that Siddique murder was allegedly planned by the Lawrence gang to create fear and use it for extortion activities.

Shiva was hiding in a hamlet in a forested area outside Bahraich, the police said, adding that he did not use mobile phones to evade arrest. Two men who allegedly helped him have also been arrested and two others have been detained for questioning.

With Shiva’s arrest, the total number of those held in the case has gone up to 21.

Joint Commissioner of Police (crime) Lakhmi Gautam said, “The main accused (Shiva) has been arrested from UP. A dedicated team of four officers were tracking him for 28 days. Eventually with the help of UP STF, we managed to nab him.”

“The other (arrested) accused helped him stay under the radar and were planning to cross over to Nepal (with Shiva),” DCP Datta Nalawade said. The two other accused have been identified as Anurag Kashyap and Gyan Prakash Tripathi.

Kashyap is the brother of Dharmaraj Kashyap, who was earlier arrested in the case. The police said that Tripathi had sent `1.5 lakh to another accused involved in the case.

According to the UP police, the Mumbai Police sent a request on October 23, asking for assistance in arresting Shiva. The UP police Police said, during questioning, Shiva said he worked at a scrap shop with Dharamraj in Pune, where he met another accused Shubham Lonkar, who owned a shop nearby. Shiva said that Shubham was closely associated with gangster Lawrence Bishnoi he himself had communicated with Lawrence’s brother Anmol multiple times through social media, said the UP police.

After Siddique’s murder on October 12, two suspected shooters were arrested on the spot while Shiva allegedly managed to flee due to large crowds in a Durga Puja procession.

According to the police, Shiva fled to Thane and then to Pune. Along the way, he threw his mobile phone so the police could not track him. He called up Anurag from mobile phones of commuters in trains and kept updating his location. This ensured that he could maintain communication with the accused without coming under the police radar.