National desk
16 October
Sandeep Dhand Ludhiana
The attackers involved in the assassination of Nationalist Congress Party leader and former Maharashtra minister Baba Siddiqui reportedly learned to use weapons by watching YouTube videos while staying in a rented house in Kurla, Mumbai. Siddiqui was shot dead on Saturday night in the Nirmal Nagar area.
During the interrogation of arrested suspects Gurmail Singh and Dharamraj Kashyap, Mumbai Crime Branch officers discovered that the main suspect, Shivakumar Gautam, who is still absconding, learned how to shoot during weddings in Uttar Pradesh. Gautam later trained Singh and Kashyap in handling guns without bullets in their rented house. Unable to find an outdoor space to practice, they spent nearly four weeks learning how to load and unload firearms through online videos.
Another suspect, Shubham Lonkar, had been under police surveillance until September 24. He had previously been questioned in connection with a shooting incident outside actor Salman Khan’s residence in April.
Following the assassination, Baba Siddiqui’s son, MLA Zeeshan Siddiqui, met with senior police officers to discuss the incident and urged swift action to bring the culprits to justice. The investigation is ongoing, and authorities continue to search for Gautam.