The investigations into Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Baba Siddique's murder and the plot to kill Bollywood actor Salman Khan have been going on parallelly with police making multiple arrests in both the cases linked to the dreaded Lawrence Bishnoi gang.
Police have arrested four persons in connection with Baba Siddique's murder, which happened on October 12 night outside his MLA son Zeeshan Siddique's office in Nirmal Nagar area of Mumbai. In connection with the plot to kill Salman Khan, the Navi Mumbai police on Thursday said they have arrested a member of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang.
Baba Siddique Murder Arrests
Police have so far arrested four persons, including Haryana resident Gurmail Baljit Singh (23), Uttar Pradesh native Dharmaraj Rajesh Kashyap (19), both alleged shooters; Harishkumar Balakram Nisad (23), and "co-conspirator" Pravin Lonkar, who hails from Pune.
Nisad and Kashyap belong to the same village as the wanted accused Shivkumar Gautam.
The interrogation of the accused in custody disclosed that Gautam learnt to handle guns during celebratory firings at weddings in Uttar Pradesh, a crime branch official said.
One of the alleged co-conspirators, Shubham Lonkar, had been questioned by the police in June in connection with firing outside actor Salman Khan's residence in Bandra, an incident allegedly linked to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang network. Shubham, against who a Look Out Circular has been issued, is the brother of Pravin Lonkar and runs a dairy in Pune.
Shubham was arrested in January in an Arms Act case registered at Akot police station in Maharashtra's Akola district, leading to the recovery of more than ten firearms, an official said.
Shubham's interrogation revealed that he had been communicating with Lawrence Bishnoi's brother Anmol, he said.
The official said that after being released on bail, Shubham became untraceable on September 24 despite being on police radar.
Baba Siddique Murder: Accused's Plan
The shooters who killed NCP leader Baba Siddique reportedly learnt to handle firearms by watching videos on YouTube at a rented house in Kurla area of Mumbai, police officials said on Wednesday.
The interrogation of the accused in custody disclosed that Gautam learnt to handle guns during celebratory firings at weddings in Uttar Pradesh, news agency PTI quoted a crime branch official as saying.
Gautam was hired as the "main shooter" as he was familiar with operating guns, the official said citing the interrogation of Gurmail Singh and Dharmaraj Kashyap.
It was Gautam who trained Kashyap and Singh in handling firearms at a rented house in Kurla, where they carried out "dry practice" (shooting without bullets) for want of open space, the official said.
They learnt how to load and unload the weapon by watching YouTube videos for nearly four weeks, the official added.
As per the probe officials, the three shooters had planned to change their clothes after attacking Siddique; and one of the arrested men, in fact, managed to change his clothes before he was nabbed.
Gautam had brought a shirt in his bag which was found near the crime spot with a firearm and some documents inside.
The accused had planned to reach the spot on the two-wheeler they had used for the recce of Siddique's home and office, as per the PTI report. However, on the day of the attack, two of the accused fell down from the two-wheeler, hence, they chose to travel to Zeeshan Siddique's office in an auto rickshaw, an official said.
They waited for Baba Siddique for one hour outside the office, the official added.
Pravin Lonkar had transferred Rs 60,000 to the account of Harishkumar Nisad who purchased the second-hand motorbike for Rs 32,000, the official said.
Plot To Kill Salman Khan
The Navi Mumbai police have arrested a member of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang in connection with an alleged plot to kill Bollywood actor Salman Khan, an official said on Thursday.
The accused, identified as Sukha alias Sukhbir Balbir Singh, was apprehended from Panipat in Haryana by a team of Panvel Town police (in Navi Mumbai) on Wednesday, PTI quoted the official as saying.
The arrested accused had allegedly given a contract to Bishnoi gang members to kill Khan, the official said, adding that Sukhbir Singh was in touch with his alleged handler Dogar, who is based in Pakistan, he said.
Sukhbir Balbir Singh along with the Bishnoi gang members had planned to use weapons from Pakistan, such as AK-47s, M16s and AK92s, to execute the alleged plot to kill Salman Khan, the official said.
The Navi Mumbai police will also interrogate Sukhbir Singh in connection with the case of murder of NCP leader and former Maharashtra minister Baba Siddique, the official said.
In April this year, shots were fired outside Salman Khan's Bandra residence in Mumbai by Bishnoi gang members, following which Navi Mumbai police registered a case against 18 identified accused and others of the gang for hatching a conspiracy to kill the actor.
Gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, his brother Anmol, Sampat Nehra, Goldie Brar and Rohit Godhara were among the persons named as accused in the FIR, the official said.
The Navi Mumbai police had in this case arrested five Bishnoi gang members - Dhananjay alias Ajay Kashyap alias Nahvi, Gaurav Bhatia, Waspi Khan alias Wasim Chikna, Rizwan Khan alias Javed, and Deepak Hawa Singh alias John, he said.
After the arrests, police in June claimed to have uncovered a plot to target the actor on his way to his farmhouse near Panvel in Navi Mumbai.
During the investigation, it also came to light that Lawrence Bishnoi and Sampat Nehra gangs had deployed around 60 to 70 members to track Salman Khan's movements as part of efforts to conduct recce at his Bandra residence, Panvel farmhouse and film shooting locations.
The accused persons were trying to use minors as sharp-shooters, using weapons from Pakistan, the PTI report quoted the official as saying.
