Mumbai Police have found a photograph of slain Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Baba Siddique's son Zeeshan Siddique, in the phone of one of the assailants.
The 66-year-old former Maharashtra Minister and NCP leader was shot dead on Saturday last, October 12, at his son's office in Nirmal Nagar, Bandra, Mumbai. The assailants reportedly belong to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang. The police constable who was on security duty for Baba Siddique has been suspended for failing to retaliate when the former minister was attacked.
The Mumbai Police revealed that the photograph of Zeeshan Siddique was sent to the suspect by their handler through Snapchat.
The shooters and conspirators used to Snapchat to share information with messages being deleted after instructions were given.
A Lawrence Bishnoi gang shooter, Yogesh alias Raju (26), who was arrested in Uttar Pradesh's Mathura, has claimed that Baba Siddique had connections with India's most-wanted criminal Dawood Ibrahim. Three cops have been suspended after the video of Yogesh speaking to the media while he was under police custody went viral.
One of the suspects arrested in the case, Ram Kanojia, reportedly disclosed that he was initially offered the contract to kill Baba Siddique. He had demanded Rs one crore for the task. After Kanaujia and his associates backed off, the task was given to Dharmraj Kashyap, Gurnail Singh and Shivkumar Gautam of Uttar Pradesh. Kashyap and Singh were arrested on the day of the crime while Gautam managed to escape.
The accused told police that Shubham Lonkar - who was an alleged conspirator and the handler of the shooters in the case - chose Kashyap and Gautam for the job because he knew the people of Uttar Pradesh would not know about Baba Siddiqui's stature in Maharashtra and that they would agree to commit the murder even for less money, according to the police sources.