Bishnoi's Men: How a pool of thugs carried out Baba Siddique’s killing

The brazen killing of senior Maharashtra leader Baba Siddique has sent shockwaves across Mumbai, India's financial capital, triggering fears of a return to gang wars and dreaded shootouts of the 1980s and '90s. 

It was the job of three hitmen to shoot Siddique last week in Mumbai's Bandra. The hit team members came from different states and diverse backgrounds, and the group that arranged the logistics didn’t belong to any single gang. Rather, it was a "pooling in" of recruits from different gangs to carry out the job, law enforcement agencies sources in Mumbai told The Federal.

This strategic "pooling in" of recruits to carry out targeted killings is a modus operandi of gangs associated with Lawrence Bishnoi and his associates operating in various states across the country, added the sources.

Watch: How is Salman-hater Lawrence Bishnoi calling shots with 'impunity' from prison?

Two alleged members of the hit team — Dharamraj Kashyap and Shiv Kumar Gautam — hail from Uttar Pradesh and were based in Pune before being roped into the operation by another accused, Shubham Lonkar, who is currently on the run.

Varied backgrounds

Neither Gautam nor Kashyap had prior criminal records. They were engaged in the scrap business in Pune, near a dairy outlet run by Shubham Lonkar and his brother Praveen, who has been arrested in the case.

The scrap business that Gautam and Kashyap were involved in belonged to another accused, Harish Nishad, who has also been arrested by Mumbai police. All three — Gautam, Kashyap, and Nishad — came from the same village in Uttar Pradesh. It was Nishad who had called both Gautam and Kashyap to assist him in his scrap business at different times.

Unlike Gautam and Kashyap, the third member of the hit team, Gurmail Baljit Singh, a resident of Kaithal in Haryana, had a prior criminal record with three cases registered against him, including one for allegedly murdering his cousin.

Hired from another set-up

Officials in the Punjab Police say Singh was recruited as a member of the hit team from an entirely different setup by Jalandhar-based gangster Mohammed Yasin Akhtar, alias Zeeshan. Zeeshan runs his own gang with around a dozen criminals.

Gurmeet Singh Chauhan, Assistant Inspector General (AIG) of the Anti-Gangster Task Force of the Punjab Police, told The Federal that Bishnoi’s gang has formed strategic partnerships with many other criminal gangs operating in Rajasthan, Delhi-NCR, Haryana, Punjab, and several other states. These gangs often outsource parts of their criminal operations to one another.

Also Read: Why Siddique’s murder weakens Ajit Pawar, boosts BJP-Sena’s poll prospects

“We have seen in the past, including in the killing of singer Sidhu Moosewala, hitmen being recruited from different gangs, weapons coming from entirely different groups, and after the crime, shelter provided to fleeing hitmen by another gang in a different state,” said Chauhan.

Previous crime jobs

Chauhan added that Akhtar previously handled some criminal jobs for the Bishnoi gang. It is suspected that he provided shelter to key Bishnoi gang shooter Saurabh Mahakal when he was trying to evade the police. Mahakal has been arrested for his alleged involvement in the killing of Moosewala.

Akhtar 'became a criminal' to take revenge after a former employee beat up his father, a mason specialising in marble work for wealthy NRIs in Jalandhar.

“Akhtar decided to avenge his father’s insult and got involved with anti-social elements. Though he managed to beat up the former employee, by then he had become deeply entrenched in the criminal networks of the area. He was jailed, and there was no looking back. Akhtar and Gurmail Baljit Singh came into contact with each other while serving time in Patiala jail,” Chauhan explained.

Also Read: Siddique killing | Why Mumbai police is unable to secure Bishnoi’s custody

Contract to kill Siddique

Finally, it is suspected that when a contract to kill Baba Siddiqui arose, top aides of Bishnoi, likely based outside India, stitched together a hit team using the services of Lonkar and Akhtar.

It was Shubham Lonkar who allegedly claimed responsibility for Siddiqui’s murder on Facebook. Lonkar had previously been questioned by Mumbai police in connection with an incident of firing at Salman Khan’s residence but was released due to a "lack of evidence".