Shooters of Baba Siddique learnt to operate firearms on YouTube: Probe
Shooters involved in the killing of NCP politician Baba Siddique learnt to handle firearms by watching videos on YouTube at a rented house in the Kurla area of Mumbai, an official said on Wednesday.
Siddique (66) was shot dead on October 12 night outside his MLA son Zeeshan Siddique’s office in the Nirmal Nagar area, prima facie by three shooters.
The police have so far arrested four persons, including Haryana resident Gurmail Baljit Singh (23), UP 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 suspect Shivkumar Gautam.
The interrogation of the suspects in custody disclosed that Gautam learnt to handle guns during celebratory firings at weddings in UP, 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 and Dharmaraj. It was Gautam who trained Dharmaraj and Gurmail 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 loading and unloading the weapon by watching YouTube videos for nearly four weeks, the official added. Shockingly, one of the alleged co-conspirators, Shubham Lonkar, was 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 the Akot police station in Maharashtra’s Akola district, leading to the recovery of more than 10 firearms, an official said. Shubham’s interrogation revealed that he had been communicating with Bishnoi’s brother Anmol, he said. The official added that after being released on bail, Shubham became untraceable on September 24 despite being on police radar.
The investigation also disclosed that the suspects involved in the shooting used to communicate through social media apps like Snapchat and Instagram to stay under the police radar, he said. The official added that since Shubham knew how to use these apps, he had asked others to communicate via Instagram and chat through Snapchat.
The police had seized a bike used by them to conduct a recce of Siddique’s office and residence and two helmets, the official added.
