17 october 2024 : Mumbai Police have issued a Look Out Circular (LOC) against Shubham Lonkar, an accused in the high-profile murder case of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Baba Siddique. Siddique, a former Maharashtra minister, was shot dead on the night of October 12 outside the office of his son, MLA Zeeshan Siddique, in the Nirmal Nagar area.
The authorities have arrested four individuals so far, including Haryana native Gurmail Baljit Singh (23) and Dharmaraj Rajesh Kashyap (19) from Uttar Pradesh, both alleged shooters in the case. Others arrested include Harishkumar Balakram Nisad (23) and co-conspirator Pravin Lonkar, who is Shubham Lonkar’s brother.
Shubham Lonkar, who runs a dairy in Pune, has a criminal history. He was previously questioned by the police in June over a firing incident outside actor Salman Khan’s residence in Bandra, which is believed to be connected to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang. Earlier this year, Shubham was arrested in an Arms Act case in Maharashtra’s Akola district, where over ten firearms were recovered. His interrogation had revealed links to Anmol Bishnoi, the brother of Lawrence Bishnoi, a notorious gangster.
Despite being under police surveillance, Shubham has been untraceable since September 24 after being released on bail. Authorities believe that he and other suspects involved in the Siddique murder communicated via social media platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat to avoid detection.
The investigation has also uncovered that another accused, Shivkumar Gautam, allegedly the main shooter, learned to operate firearms through celebratory firing at weddings in Uttar Pradesh. Gautam had trained Singh and Kashyap at a rented house in Kurla using YouTube videos to master firearm techniques.
The murder plot involved extensive planning, with the accused conducting reconnaissance of Siddique’s home and office on a second-hand motorbike. The accused had planned to reach the spot on the two-wheeler they had used for the recce of Siddique’s home and office. But on the day of the attack, two of the accused fell down from the two-wheeler, hence they chose to travel to Zeeshan Siddique’s office in an auto rickshaw, an official said.