Baba Siddique murder: Shooters learnt to operate firearms by watching YouTube videos

MUMBAI: The shooters who killed NCP leader Baba Siddique here learnt to handle firearms by watching videos on YouTube at a rented house in Kurla area of Mumbai, police officials said on Wednesday.

Siddique (66), a former Maharashtra minister, was shot dead on October 12 night outside his MLA son Zeeshan Siddique’s office in Nirmal Nagar area.

Police have so far arrested four persons, including Haryana resident Gurmail Baljit Singh (23), Uttar Pradesh native Dharmaraj Rajesh Kashyap (19), both alleged shooters; Harishkumar Balakram Nisad (23), and “co-conspirator” Pravin Lonkar, who hails from Pune.

Nisad and Kashyap belong to the same village as the wanted accused Shivkumar Gautam.

The interrogation of the accused in custody disclosed that Gautam learnt to handle guns during celebratory firings at weddings in Uttar Pradesh, a crime branch official said.

Gautam was hired as the “main shooter” as he knew how to operate guns, the official said citing the interrogation of Gurmail Singh and Dharmaraj Kashyap.

It was Gautam who trained Kashyap and Singh in handling firearms at a rented house in Kurla, where they performed “dry practice” (shooting without bullets) for want of open space, he said.

They learnt how to load and unload the weapon by watching YouTube videos for nearly four weeks, the official added.

As per the probe officials, the three shooters had planned to change their clothes after attacking Siddique; and one of the arrested men, in fact, managed to change his clothes before he was nabbed.

Gautam had brought a shirt in his bag which was found near the crime spot with a firearm and some documents inside.

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.

They lay in wait for Baba Siddique for one hour outside the office, he added.

Pravin Lonkar had transferred Rs 60,000 to the account of Harishkumar Nisad who purchased the second-hand motorbike for Rs 32,000, the official said.

One of the alleged co-conspirators, Shubham Lonkar, had been questioned by the police in June in connection with firing outside actor Salman Khan’s residence in Bandra, an incident allegedly linked to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang network.

Shubham is the brother of Pravin Lonkar and runs a dairy in Pune.

Shubham was arrested in January in an Arms Act case registered at Akot police station in Maharashtra’s Akola district, leading to the recovery of more than ten firearms, an official said.

Shubham’s interrogation revealed that he had been communicating with Lawrence Bishnoi’s brother Anmol, he said.

The official said that after being released on bail, Shubham became untraceable on September 24 despite being on police radar.

The investigation also disclosed that the accused involved in Siddique shooting case used to communicate through social media apps like Snapchat and Instagram to stay under the police radar, he said. (PTI)