Key shooter fired 6 bullets, 3 of which hit Baba Siddique: STF

LUCKNOW Shiv Kumar Gautam, 25, one of the three assailants in the murder case of NCP leader Baba Siddique in Mumbai on October 12, revealed during interrogation that he was loitering at the crime scene after changing his T-shirt and taking the gun discarded that had been used in the crime. . The STF had arrested him along with his four associates from Nanpara, Bahraich, on Sunday when they were traveling to cross the porous India-Nepal border to evade arrest.

A senior STF official said Shiv Kumar shot Baba Siddiqui six times and wandered around the crime scene for an hour and a half after the killing. He said the suspect changed his T-shirt so he couldn’t be identified after throwing the gun nearby. The suspect was being interrogated by the STF and the Mumbai Special Crime Branch, police officials said on Monday.

Two other attackers, including another Bahrain resident, Dharamraj, were arrested on the spot. Only Shiv fired the six shots, three of which hit Baba Siddique, the officer said.

The main motive behind the murder was to spread terror and extort money from Bollywood and Mumbai. Anmol Bishnoi, brother of Lawrence Bishnoi, instructed Shiv Kumar to kill Baba Siddique’s son Zeeshan if Baba was unreachable, STF officials said.

The official said ₹10 lakh for the contract killing was to be paid in two installments – first at the Mahakal temple of Ujjain and the second at Vaishno Devi, after the execution of the crime. Received Shiv Kumar ₹15-20,000 before the murder and used it during his escape, he said.

The suspect’s hideout was set up in Shamsheerganj, Nepal, but he was arrested before he reached there. No criminal cases have been found against Shiv Kumar, but his criminal history was verified in Mumbai, Pune and Bahraich.

Notably, Shiv Kumar’s four accomplices – Anurag Kashyap, Gyan Prakash Tripathi, Akash Shrivastava and Akhilendra Pratap Singh, who were arrested on Sunday, were arrested for assault in July 2024 and were out on bail.