Mumbai/New Delhi. Mumbai Police on Tuesday said that the fourth accused arrested in the murder case of NCP leader and former Maharashtra minister Baba Siddiqui had provided financial help and weapons for the crime. A court here on Tuesday sent the fourth accused Harish Kumar Nishad (23) to police custody till October 21.
Nishad was arrested from Bahraich in Uttar Pradesh today. Earlier, the police had identified the fourth accused as Harish Kumar Balkaram. Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (Esplanade Court) V R Patil, while remanding the accused to police custody, said “the crime is of serious nature” and his presence before the investigating agency is necessary for custodial interrogation.
The crime branch told the court that Nishad had provided money to others involved in the crime, and the investigation was necessary to trace the “upper and lower level” contacts regarding financial assistance. It said information is also to be collected about the bank accounts and other modes of transactions used by Nishad to provide financial assistance to other accused.
Police said they also have to find out how he made the weapons used in the crime available to other arrested accused.
Police had earlier arrested the alleged shooter Gurmel Baljeet Singh (23), a resident of Haryana, Dharamraj Rajesh Kashyap (19), a resident of Uttar Pradesh, and ‘co-conspirator’ Praveen Lonkar from Pune. He has been sent to police custody till October 21.
During the remand hearing, the police told the court that Nishad and Kashyap and wanted accused Shivkumar Gautam were from the same village.
Police said that Nishad used to run a junk shop in Pune, where the wanted accused lived and further investigation is necessary to gather information about the whereabouts of Gautam.
According to the police, the accused conspired and committed the crime after conducting recce of the victim’s house and the incident site.
Nishad’s lawyer Ajay Dubey, opposing the remand petition, said that the accused is a “victim of circumstances and is being made a scapegoat”.
According to Mumbai Police, 66-year-old Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Baba Siddiqui was surrounded and shot by three people just outside the office of his MLA son Zeeshan Siddiqui in Kher Nagar in Mumbai’s Bandra area on Saturday night. Baba Siddiqui was taken to Lilavati Hospital, where doctors declared him dead.
CEC said on the question related to Baba Siddiqui murder: Will take a tough stance against violence
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajeev Kumar on Tuesday said in the backdrop of the murder of Nationalist Congress Party leader Baba Siddiqui that with the implementation of the Model Code of Conduct in Maharashtra, the Election Commission will take a tough stance to stop violence against political figures. When asked about security concerns after Siddiqui’s murder, the CEC said that there will be clear instructions to the police that there should not be any kind of violence.
He said, “After the implementation of the election code of conduct, we will make it absolutely clear to the police officers that whatever kind of violence and crime of the nature with political implications that you are mentioning, it will be absolutely prohibited.” Kumar said, “Till now we had no role. As soon as the code of conduct comes into force, we will take a strict view on it. We will instruct everyone that there should not be any kind of violence or crime, especially against any political figure.” CEC said, “We ensured that this does not happen in Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir… one after the other.”