Murder of Baba Siddique: a photo of Son Zeeshan was found on the shooter’s phone, Snapchat was used to share details

Nearly a week after NCP politician Baba Siddique was shot dead, a photograph of his son Zeeshan Siddique was found on one of the shooter’s phones during investigations, Mumbai Police said on Saturday.

Police confirmed the photo of the shooter was shared by his handler via Snapchat, the messaging app. Investigators added that the shooters and conspirators used an app to communicate.

“Investigation revealed that the shooters and conspirators used Snapchat to exchange information and the messages were deleted after receiving instructions,” Mumbai police was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

Baba Siddique, a former Maharashtra minister and a senior leader of the Ajit Pawar-led NCP, was killed after he was shot dead by three people in Bandra East, Mumbai on the evening of October 12.

The shooters received information about the targets from their curator

Details of the target were provided to the shooters by their handler, believed to be Shubham Lonkar, who is associated with the gang of notorious gangster Lawrence Bishnoi.

A day after Baba Siddique’s death, Shubham’s brother Praveen Lonkar posted on Facebook claiming that Lawrence Bishnoi’s gang was behind the murder.

Mumbai Police had earlier arrested four people, including Haryana resident Gurmail Baljeet Singh (23) and Uttar Pradesh native Dharmaraj Rajesh Kashyap (19), both alleged shooters; Harishkumar Balakram Nisad (23) and “accomplice” Praveen Lonkar, hailing from Pune.

Mumbai Police on Friday arrested five more people in connection with the murder of former Maharashtra minister Baba Siddique. These arrests bring the total number of defendants held so far to nine.

The official named the five accused as Nitin Gautam Sapre (32), Sambhaji Kisan Pardi (44), Pradeep Dattu Thombre (37), Chetan Dilip Pardi and Ram Phulchand Kanujia (43).

The main accused Shivkumar Gautam, who allegedly fired six shots at Baba Siddique, of which two hit the target, is still absconding. The police have formed several teams to nab the accused.

The Mumbai crime branch said on Saturday that arrested accused Ram Kanojia, during interrogation, revealed that he was the first to be given the contract to kill the NCP leader and he had initially demanded one crore rupees.

According to his statement, absconding accused Shubham Lonkar was the first to give the contract to kill Baba Siddiqui to Ram Kanojia. Kanojia demanded a fee of one crore rupees for carrying out the murder.