In the ongoing investigation into the murder of NCP leader Baba Siddique, Mumbai police have uncovered that the main shooter, Shiv Kumar Gautam, revisited the crime scene in Bandra East and later went to Lilavati Hospital in Bandra West to confirm Siddique’s death.
Shiv Kumar, who was apprehended on November 10 by the Mumbai Crime Branch and Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force in Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh, has been under intense interrogation. He was reportedly a close aide of another key suspect, Shubham Lonkar, and had connections with Anmol, the brother of incarcerated gangster Lawrence Bishnoi.
During questioning, Shiv Kumar described his escape after the murder, including a shirt change and the disposal of his clothes and weapon in a bag hidden under an abandoned car close to the scene. After this, he returned to observe the police response. Upon seeing Siddique rushed to Lilavati Hospital, he followed, waiting there until he received confirmation of Siddique’s death. The police later recovered the discarded bag with the pistol and shirt.
From Lilavati Hospital, Shiv Kumar fled to Kurla railway station, traveling via Thane and Pune before boarding a train to Uttar Pradesh. He destroyed his phone en route and acquired a new one in Lucknow. After the murder, he initially planned to regroup with his accomplices in Ujjain and possibly visit the Vaishnodevi temple in Jammu. However, with his associates arrested at the murder site, he diverted to Bahraich, where he sought refuge and was planning an escape to Nepal before his capture.
The investigation also revealed that two other suspects had trained with high-end firearms in a Jharkhand forest in preparation for another hit targeting a politician in Pune.
The probe further disclosed an alleged plan by the Lawrence Bishnoi gang to target Aftab Poonawala, the accused in the high-profile Shraddha Walkar murder case. The gang, which includes radicalized member Shubham Lonkar, reportedly considered Poonawala a fitting target due to the case’s media prominence and ideological alignment with the gang’s motives. Although Lonkar planned to eliminate Poonawala outside Delhi’s Saket court, the plan was stalled as he struggled to find skilled shooters. In the meantime, he was tasked with the murder of Baba Siddique.
Police report that Lonkar, who aspired to join the army, became radicalized by the Lawrence Bishnoi gang after unsuccessful attempts to enlist in 2018. He established a WhatsApp group with the stated goal of targeting alleged offenders, including rapists, and underwent weapon training in Azerbaijan and Nepal.
