Baba Siddique murder: Mumbai Police suspends constable guarding NCP leader during incident

MUMBAI: Days after the murder of Nationalist Congress Party leader Baba Siddiqui, the Mumbai Police suspended police security guard Shyam Sonawane, who was present with the former Maharashtra minister during the time of the incident. According to the Mumbai police, constable Shyam Sonawane, deployed for Baba Siddiqui's security, "did not take any action" on his part against the accused who fired at Siddiqui at that time.

"An internal investigation is also going on," the police said. Baba Siddique was shot outside his office in Nirmal Nagar. He sustained two gunshot wounds to the chest and was taken to Mumbai's Lilavati Hospital for emergency treatment, where he succumbed to his injuries on October 12.

In another development today, a photograph of NCP leader Baba Siddique's son Zeeshan Siddique was found in the phone of one of the arrested accused, Mumbai Police said. As per the police, this picture was shared with the accused by their handler through Snapchat.

"Investigation revealed that the shooters and conspirators used Snapchat to share information with messages being deleted after instructions were given," Mumbai police said.Arrested accused Ram Kanojia revealed during interrogation that he was the first person, who was given the contract to kill the NCP leader and he had initially demanded one crore rupees, the Mumbai Crime Branch stated.

According to his statement, fugitive accused Shubham Lonkar had first given the contract to kill Baba Siddiqui to Ram Kanojia. Kanojia had demanded a fee of one crore rupees for carrying out the murder. "During interrogation by the Mumbai Crime Branch, Ram Kanojia disclosed that Shubham Lonkar initially offered the contract to him and Nitin Sapre to kill Baba Siddiqui. Kanojia, who hails from Maharashtra, knew the consequences of killing Baba Siddiqui, which is why he was hesitant to take the contract.

This led him to demand one crore rupees for the job. Subsequently, Shubham Lonkar chose not to hire Ram Kanojia and instead selected shooters from Uttar Pradesh," the crime branch said. "Kanojia further revealed that Shubham Lonkar was aware that the people from Uttar Pradesh might not be fully aware of Baba Siddiqui's stature or reputation in Maharashtra.

Therefore, they would agree to carry out the murder for a lower price. When Ram Kanojia and Nitin Sapre backed out, Shubham hired Dharma Raj Kashyap, Gurnail Singh, and Shivkumar Gautam from Uttar Pradesh for the task," the statement added.