Baba Siddique murder case: Zeeshan names political leaders, builders, in police statement
The police have maintained in the charge sheet that the NCP (AP) leader was killed by the Anmol Bishnoi gang on account of his close ties with Salman Khan
MUMBAI: Former MLA Zeeshan Siddique, in his police statement, has named several builders and political leaders connected with slum rehabilitation (SRA) projects in Bandra and has sought a probe into their suspected link with the murder of his father Baba Siddique. The Mumbai police, on their part, have maintained in the charge sheet that the NCP (AP) leader was killed by the Anmol Bishnoi gang on account of his close ties with actor Salman Khan.
“I had been fighting for the rights of those in SRA projects in Bandra East and West. Citizens were contacting me, as several developers were doing injustice to them,” Zeeshan said in his police statement recorded on October 24, 2024. “Several of those builders, including Prithi Chavan, Shahid Balwa, Shivalik Ventures, Adani, Nabil Patel, Vinod Goenka, Parvez Lakdawala, Mundra Builders, Vinay Thakkar, Omkar Builders, as also BJP leader Mohit Kamboj, were in regular touch with my father.”
Zeeshan said that his father maintained a personal diary, and on October 12, 2024, the day he was shot, had mentioned Mohit Kamboj in it. “I later learned that Kamboj had spoken to my father via a WhatsApp call between 5.30 pm and 6.00 pm,” he said. “He wanted to meet my father regarding a Mundra Builders project in Bandra East. I had received videos revealing that the builder had used bad words for my father while contacting slum dwellers.”
While concluding his statement, Zeeshan demanded that a detailed investigation be undertaken of all the projects that he had mentioned. His statement forms part of the charge sheet filed by the crime branch on January 6 against the 26 arrested and three wanted accused. The latter include purported gang leader Anmol Bishnoi, brother of incarcerated gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, Pune resident Shubham Lonkar and Mohammed Yasin Akhtar, who coordinated with Bishnoi to allegedly execute the conspiracy.
In his statement, Zeeshan also mentioned his several protests in support of the Dynaneshwar Nagar slum dwellers after he found that they were being forced to accept rehabilitation tenements in other parts of the city and not at the project site in Bandra East.
The former MLA has also named Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Anil Parab in his police statement, claiming that Parab had held a meeting of the slum dwellers about an SRA project. After Zeeshan told the slum dwellers that they should not sign the general body resolution (accepting a particular builder for redevelopment) if they did not agree with the terms and conditions, a “false offence” was registered against him at Kherwadi police station, he said.
“We have not ruled out any angle, and whatever concerns have been raised by Zeeshan Siddique will also be probed, as our investigation is going on,” said a senior police officer. “We will investigate and record statements of the people concerned, and file a supplementary charge-sheet if necessary. However, prima facie, so far we have not found any support for the concerns raised by Zeeshan.”
Baba Siddique was shot dead outside Zeeshan’s office in Khernagar, a crowded area in Bandra East, on October 12, 2024. Three young men armed with sophisticated pistols trailed the 66-year-old former Maharashtra minister, as he left the office around 9.30 pm and, along with his police guard and three supporters, walked towards his car parked nearby.
One of the three alleged assailants, Shivkumar Gautam, fired six rounds, three of which hit Siddique’s upper body. Gautam proceeded along a busy road, changed his T-shirt behind a parked vehicle, dumped the gun in a backpack which he threw away, and returned to the crime scene. He also went to Lilavati Hospital where the NCP leader breathed his last.
Gautam’s two accomplices—Dharmraj 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 people, including members of two gangs that had carried out a recce of the house and office of the slain NCP leader earlier.
The police have seized five firearms, six magazines and 84 rounds apart from 35 mobile handsets from the arrested accused and filed a charge sheet against them on January 6. The charge sheet also named three wanted accused, including Anmol Bishnoi, Mohammed Yasin Akhtar and Shubham The three are termed as the key conspirators in the case.
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