The accused shooters of Baba Siddique had failed over ten times in the past before killing him on Saturday, October 13. The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader was shot dead outside his son MLA Zeeshan Siddique's residence in Bandra.A senior police officer said the shooters failed in their previous attempts to kill Baba Siddique for several reasons. “At times, Siddique didn’t turn up, and when he did, they were forced to abandon the plan because he was surrounded by too many of his supporters,” a senior police official told TOI. Consequently, the shooters were instructed to murder Siddique near his son's office in Kherwadi, as it is an open area, said police officials.
Mumbai Police have arrested four people in connection with the case. On Tuesday, October 16, they arrested 24-year-old Harishkumar Nishad from Kaisarganj in Uttar Pradesh. He is under police custody till October 21. The other shooters, Gurmail Singh and Dharamraj Kashyap and milk dairy owner Praveen Lonkar, were arrested earlier. The milk dairy owner's brother Shubham Lonkar, whose social media post connected Siddique’s killing to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, is still absconding, reported ANI. Harish Kumar Nishad used to run a scrap shop in Pune city, located right next to Praveen's dairy shop.
Praveen had given Nishad ₹60,000 to buy a secondhand bike, which the shooters used for tracking Baba Siddique. “Nishad rode this bike from Pune to Mumbai and handed it over to the shooters near their rented room in Kurla. The shooters used the bike for carrying out recce of Siddique,” TOI quoted a senior police official as saying. Yesterday, the Mumbai Police also revealed that Baba Siddique's assassination plan was hatched in Pune around three months back. The NCP leader was shot on Saturday night near his car while he was leaving his son's office. He died later in hospital.