Shiv Kumar Gautam, one of the assailants who shot dead Maharashtra minister Baba Siddique on October 12 and was arrested from Uttar Pradesh’s Bahraich on Sunday, has revealed shocking details to Mumbai Police on the Lawrence Bishnoi gang’s involvement in the incident.
Gautam told Mumbai Police during interrogation that the Larence Bishnoi gang had assigned him the task of killing either Baba Siddique or his son Zeeshan Siddique. Anmol Siddique, brother of jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, had instructed him to shoot whomever he came across first.
Police also arrested four individuals—Anurag Kashyap, Gyan Prakash Tripathi, Akash Srivastava, and Akhilesh Pratap Singh—for providing him shelter and helping his bid to flee the country. Siddique (66) was shot dead by three gunmen in Mumbai’s Bandra area on October 12.
Gautam’s arrest brought the total number of arrests in the Baba Siddique murder case to 23. A joint team of UP’s Special Task Force earlier said that the group was attempting to escape to Nepal via the porous border near Bahraich.
How Did Shiv Kumar Plan His Escape?
Gautam had disclosed that he, along with two accomplices, conducted extensive surveillance of Siddique in Mumbai. On October 12, amid a crowded festival atmosphere, they took advantage of an opportunity to kill the NCP leader. Gurmail Singh, a native of Haryana and Dharamraj Kashyap from Uttar Pradesh, were the other two shooters who were detained on the spot.
According to Mumbai Police, Shiv Kumar changed his appearance after the assassination of Baba Siddique and observed the commotion at the spot for a considerable amount of time, mingling with the crowd to avoid being identified. He later took an auto to Kurla Station and boarded a local train to Thane.
After reaching Thane, he boarded an express train to Pune and disposed of his mobile phone to avoid being traced. He stayed in Pune for about seven days, then travelled to Jhansi by train, where he stayed for five days. He next went to Lucknow and bought a new mobile phone to contact his associates.
Gautam stayed in Lucknow for about 11 days before going to Bahraich, where he was arrested. His associates had arranged a safe house for him in a nearby village. Gautam only used public transportation to travel from Mumbai to Bahraich and was planning to flee to Nepal on November 10 following instructions from the Lawrence Bishnoi gang.
The accused told police that he had plans to go to Ujjain, then Vaishno Devi before fleeing abroad, which was foiled by his arrest. During his escape from Mumbai, he had contacted co-accused Anurag Kashyap using a passenger’s phone who was travelling to Jharkhand.
How Mumbai Police Caught The Suspect?
The Crime Branch of Mumbai Police had been tracking Shiv Kumar Gautam for 21 days, tracing various people connected to him. Police had collected detailed data on Gautam’s family and close associates, covering 45 individuals who were under surveillance.
Gautam had been in regular touch with Shubham Lonkar, a scrap dealer who connected him with Lawrence Bishnoi’s brother, and Zeeshan Akhtar before and after the murder. Police investigation gradually narrowed down to four suspects – Gyanprakash Tripathi, Anurag Kashyap, Akhilesh Pratap Singh, and Akash Srivastava – when they went to the market to purchase clothes matching Gautam’s size. A trap to nab the accused was laid on November 10.
Additionally, the police said Rs 2 lakh had been deposited into Anurag Kashyap’s bank account before the murder, which he then withdrew and gave to Gautam to purchase weapons. An investigation to identify the source of this money is underway. Furthermore, Rs 5 lakh was found in the account of accused Harish Kumar Nishad.
Gautam has been remanded to police custody till November 19. Lawrence Bishnoi’s younger brother Anmol, believed to be living in Canada, was allegedly behind the murder, but the motive remains unclear, police have said.
