Mumbai: The murder of former Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Baba Siddique has led to the arrest of five individuals in a joint operation by Mumbai and Uttar Pradesh police. Among those arrested is the main accused, ShivKumar Gautam, who is alleged to have carried out the fatal shooting of Siddique on October 12.
Shivkumar was arrested from Bahraich in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday after a series of shocking revelations were made during his interrogation. He confessed to being contracted by the Bishnoi gang to kill either Baba Siddique or his son Zeeshan Siddique. Following the murder, Shivkumar initially planned to flee to Ujjain, then to Vaishno Devi, and ultimately abroad. However, his escape plan was foiled.
According to police, after killing Baba Siddique, Shivkumar did not immediately flee the scene. Instead, he moved a short distance away, changed his shirt, and blended into the crowd that had gathered. He then took a rickshaw to Kurla station, boarded a local train to Thane, and eventually reached Pune around 3 am the next day. In Pune, he stayed for seven days, disposed of his phone, and continued his escape route via train to Jhansi and Lucknow.
In Lucknow, Shivkumar bought a new phone and resumed contact with his accomplices, including co-accused Anurag Kashyap, Shubham Lonkar, and Zeeshan Akhtar. After staying in Lucknow for 11 days, he travelled to Bahraich, where his associates arranged for him to stay at a safe house in a nearby village. Police were alerted when he was planning to flee to Nepal via Bahraich on November 10.
The five arrested individuals, including Shivkumar, were presented in Mumbai's Killa Court on Monday. The court remanded them to seven days of police custody until November 10 for further investigation. Police said that during his interrogation, Shivkumar expressed no remorse for the murder, insisting that he had no regrets about his actions.
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