Baba Siddique murder case: Police haven’t interrogated any of the suspects named by us: Zeeshan Siddique

MUMBAI: Reiterating his claim that certain builders behind the murder of his father, Nationalist Congress Party (Ajit Pawar) leader Ziauddin Abdul Rahim Siddique aka Baba Siddique, former MLA Zeeshan Siddique on Thursday claimed that the Mumbai police crime branch has not interrogated any of the suspects named by him and his family members.

Zeeshan met police commissioner Vivek Phansalkar and joint commissioner of police Lakhmi Gautam of the Crime Branch. After meeting the senior police officers, he spoke to the media persons in the Mumbai police headquarters stating that he had some queries as regards investigation into the brutal murder of his father and had therefore come to meet the officers.

“As charge sheet has been filed in the case, I wanted to check if the crime branch has interrogated the persons, who my family members and I suspect to involved in the murder case,” Zeeshan said.

“It looks like....I came to know that none of those suspects, whose names have been given by me in my statement to the police, have been interrogated by the police. This is a mockery of law and order,” he said.

The former MLA added that he would now meet their party leader Ajit Pawar and chief minister Devendra Fadnavis to ascertain as to why statement of any of the builders that we suspected was called for interrogation and statement of any of them was recorded by the police and why the circumstances we mentioned were not investigated and why the builders are being protected.

Late in the evening on October 12, 2024, Baba Siddique was shot dead outside his son Zeeshan Siddique’s office in Khernagar, a crowded marketplace in Bandra East. Three young men armed with sophisticated pistols trailed the 66-year-old former Maharashtra minister as he left his son’s office around 9.15pm and along with his police guard walked towards his car parked around 25/30 meters away.

One of the three men, Shivkumar Gautam, allegedly fired six rounds, three of which hit Siddique’s upper body and caused his death within an hour at Lilavati Hospital, the police said, adding that Gautam quietly proceeded along a busy road, changed his T-shirt behind a vehicle parked on the side of the road, dumped the gun used in commission of the crime in a backpack and returned to the crime scene.

He also went to Lilawati Hospital where the NCP leader breathed his last, while his two accomplices – Dharmaraj Kashyap and Gurmail Singh ran towards Kherwadi junction where they were apprehended by the policemen on patrolling duty. The arrest of the duo led to arrests of 24 more in the case, which included members of two gangs which too carried out recce of the house and office of the slain NCP leader earlier.

The police have seized 5 firearms, 6 magazines and 84 rounds apart from 35 mobile handsets from the arrested accused and have filed charge-sheet against them on January 6. The charge sheet also named three wanted accused, including Anmol Bishnoi, brother of incarcerated gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, Mohammed Yasin Akhtar aka Mohammed Jamil aka Kehi aka Jessi and Pune resident Shubham Rameshwar Lonkar. The three are also termed as the key conspirators in the case.