A day after NCP leader Baba Siddique’s murder, an alleged member of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang on Sunday claimed responsibility for the murder and also threatened that anyone who helps actor Salman Khan, will be in its crosshairs.
A viral social media post claimed that a member of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang is behind the killing. A police official also confirmed that they are verifying the authenticity of the post.
Soon after Siddique, a three-time MLA and former Maharashtra minister, was killed near the office of his son, MLA Zeeshan Siddique, in Bandra East on Saturday night, speculation began swirling of a Bishnoi gang link to the daring crime.
This was confirmed on Sunday after a post on Facebook by one Shubuu Lonkar, believed to be Bishnoi gang associate Shubham Rameshwar Lonkar, claiming responsibility. While Lonkar is in jail, police said the post was made by his brother Pravin Lonkar, who was arrested on Sunday evening.
Notably, some members of the Bishnoi gang were previously apprehended in connection with the firing outside Bollywood star Salman Khan’s residence earlier this year.
In the social media post, Lonkar claimed that Siddique had been killed because he was linked to India’s most wanted terrorist Dawood Ibrahim, was close to Salman Khan and because of the death of Anuj Thapan, one of the arrested suspects in the shooting outside Khan’s house, in police custody, NDTV reported.
Thapan was found dead on May 1 inside the Mumbai Crime Branch lock-up. The police had said he died by suicide but his family had claimed he was tortured in custody.
“We do not have any enmity with anyone but whoever helps Salman Khan and the Dawood gang, keep your accounts in order (‘hisab-kitaab kar lena’),” Lonkar wrote in Hindi in the Facebook post. Police said they are verifying the authenticity of the post.
The Bishnoi gang, which became a household name after claiming responsibility for murdering musician Sidhu Moose Wala in 2022, has said it wants to kill Salman Khan because of his alleged involvement in shooting blackbucks at Bawad in Mathania near Jodhpur in September 1998, during the filming of ‘Hum Saath Saath Hain’. The alleged act had upset the Bishnoi community, which considers the blackbuck sacred.
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Meanwhile, security has been tightened around Salman Khan’s house – Galaxy Apartments in Bandra – outside which a firing had taken place on April 14.
A tight security cordon has also been put in place in South Mumbai’s Malabar Hill, where the residences of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Ministers Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar are located. Siddique, who had been part of the Congress for 48 years, had switched to Pawar’s party earlier this year, NDTV reported.