Mumbai. The Mumbai Police, which is investigating the murder of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Baba Siddiqui, has issued a ‘Lookout Circular’ (LOC) against three accused, including the main shooter Shivkumar Gautam, to prevent them from fleeing the country. An official gave this information on Thursday.
The other two accused named in the LOC are “co-conspirator” Shubham Lonkar and the suspected mastermind of the attackers, Mohammad Zeeshan Akhtar.
The officer said that Mumbai Police Crime Branch teams have been sent to different parts of the country to nab the accused.
He told that LOC has been issued due to the fear of the accused fleeing the country. According to the circular, all ports and airports are being monitored to nab them.
Former Maharashtra minister Siddiqui (66) was shot dead outside the office of his son and MLA Zeeshan Siddiqui in Bandra, a posh area of Mumbai, on the night of 12 October. Police have so far arrested four persons, including Gurmail Baljit Singh (23), resident of Haryana, Dharamraj Rajesh Kashyap (19), resident of Uttar Pradesh. Both of them are the alleged shooters. The other two arrested are Harish Kumar Balkram Nishad (23) and Praveen Lonkar, “co-conspirator” and brother of Shubham Lonkar. Praveen is a resident of Pune.
The official said that a team of Mumbai Police will also visit Akola district of Maharashtra, where the parents of the Lonkar brothers live. Police will talk to Shubham Lonkar to gather information about his whereabouts. It is suspected that Shubham Lonkar had posted on Facebook that Lawrence Bishnoi gang was behind the murder of Siddiqui.
The officer said that comedian and Bigg Boss 17 winner Munawar Faruqui is also in the ‘hit list’ of Bishnoi gang.
Citing his investigation, the police officer said that the Lonkar brothers had given Rs 5 lakh in cash to the shooter through Nishad. Shubham runs a dairy in Pune. In January, he was arrested in a case registered under the Arms Act in Akola district, after which more than 10 firearms were recovered from him, an official said.
Police had earlier told that during interrogation of Shubham, it was revealed that he was in contact with Anmol, brother of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi. After getting bail, Shubham went missing on September 24, while the police were keeping an eye on him. The police, earlier citing the interrogation of Singh and Kashyap, had said that Gautam was hired as the “key shooter” because he knew how to use a gun, which he had learned during the joyous firing at weddings.
It was Gautam who trained Kashyap and Singh in using firearms in a rented house in Kurla, where they practiced without cartridges due to lack of open space. He learned to insert and remove cartridges from the weapon by watching YouTube videos for about four weeks. He told that the house was taken on lease with the help of an online portal.
Meanwhile, Siddiqui’s son and MLA Zeeshan Siddiqui again visited the Mumbai Police headquarters on Thursday. Sources said he met Mumbai Police Commissioner Vivek Phansalkar and discussed the ongoing investigation into his father’s murder. He also shared some information related to the incident.