Punjab: Fazilka man held in Baba Siddique case

Punjab Police’s Anti Gangster Task Force (AGTF), in a joint operation with the Maharashtra Police, on Saturday apprehended a Fazilka-based person from Sulemanki road in the district in connection with the Baba Siddique murder case that took place in Mumbai last month. This is the 24th arrest made by the Mumbai police in this case.

Punjab director general of police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav said the arrested person has been identified as Akash Gill, a resident of Pakka Chishti in Fazilka district. “A preliminary investigation reveals the arrested person is an associate of Lawrence Bishnoi gang. He was providing logistic assistance to the shooters involved in Baba Siddique’s murder,” the DGP stated in a post on his X handle (formerly Twitter). He said the accused has been handed over to the Mumbai Police for further investigations.

Sharing operation details, AGTF ADGP Promod Ban said police teams, under the supervision of AGTF AIG Sandeep Goel, have been working closely with the Mumbai Police on this case. During the ongoing investigation, the role of Akash Gill came to the fore. Acting swiftly, police teams from the AGTF, led by DSP Rajan Parminder Singh, launched a joint operation along with Mumbai crime branch and arrested the accused from the Sulemanki road in Fazilka, he said.

This is the second arrest made in the case from Punjab. One Surjeet Sushil Singh was held in a joint operation of the Punjab Police and the Mumbai Police from Ludhiana last month.

NCP leader Baba Siddique was gunned down on October 12 near his MLA son Zeeshan Siddique’s office in Bandra East’s Nirmal Nagar area.

The police recently got a major breakthrough in the case when it arrested “main shooter” Shivkumar Gautam from Bahraich in Uttar Pradesh. Gautam, who had been on the run since October 12, was held while trying to flee to Nepal, the police had claimed.