Baba Siddique shot dead: Days after the murder of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and former Maharashtra minister Baba Siddique, Mumbai police, who are currently probing the case, conducted an ossification test on the accused, Dharmaraj Kashyap, which proved he is not a minor, officials said on Monday.
Siddique, a three-time MLA from the Bandra West constituency, was shot dead by three men in Bandra East on Saturday evening, a day when Mumbai police were already on high alert due to two Dussehra rallies by the Shiv Sena. According to police, the assailants fired 6-7 rounds at Siddique as he was leaving his son’s office and getting into his car. Two bullets hit his chest, while another struck his abdomen.
Mumbai police arrested Gurmail Baljit Singh, 23, from Haryana, and Dharmaraj Rajesh Kashyap, 19, from Uttar Pradesh, while one of their accomplices, who was present during the shooting, managed to flee the scene at that time. Later, in a late evening development on Sunday, the Mumbai Police crime branch arrested 28-year-old Pravin Lonkar from Pune. He is the brother of Shubham Lonkar, who is linked to the Nirmal Nagar shooting case.
The crime branch team presented the accused in court, where Kashyap’s lawyer claimed he was a minor, an official said.
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On Sunday, the court ordered an ossification test for Kashyap, which confirmed he was not a minor, the official added. Kashyap was subsequently brought before the court and remanded to police custody until October 21.
The brothers are believed to have pre-planned Siddique’s murder, recruiting Kashyap and Shivkumar Gautam in the plan, the official said. Further investigation is ongoing, he added.