Baba Siddique murder | Main shooter has no criminal history: UP cops

Bahraich, (UP), Nov 11 (PTI) Suspected main shooter Shivkumar Gautam arrested in the NCP leader Baba Siddique's murder case has no criminal history while three of his accomplices have been booked here earlier for molesting a minor girl, a senior official said on Monday.

The Uttar Pradesh STF and Mumbai Police on Sunday arrested Shivkumar along with his four protectors -- Anurag Kashyap, Gyan Prakash Tripathi, Akash Srivastava and Akhilendra Pratap Singh -- from Nanpara in Bahraich district.

"During investigation, we have found that main accused Shivkumar Gautam alias Shiva and his accomplice Anurag Kashyap have no criminal history in Bahraich," Superintendent of Police Vrinda Shukla said.

However, Shukla said that a case was registered against three others -- Akhilendra, Akash and Gyan Prakash -- who were arrested on Sunday, for allegedly molesting a minor during a Moharram procession and under sections of the POCSO Act.

It has also come to the fore that they had some land dispute with the other party, she said, adding that a probe is on in the matter.

According to police, Anurag, Gyan Prakash, Akash, and Akhilendra have been arrested for sheltering Shivkumar and helping him flee to Nepal.

Former Maharashtra minister Siddique, 66, was shot dead on October 12 by three assailants outside his son MLA Zeeshan Siddique's office building in Bandra East, Mumbai.

Meanwhile, during interrogation, Shivkumar said he was told that in exchange for killing Siddique he would get Rs 10 lakh after the murder and that every month he would get something, the UP STF said in a statement.

Shivkumar also told the STF that they had been following Siddique in Mumbai for several days and on the night of October 12 when they got the right time, they killed him, the statement said.

According to the STF, Shivkumar told the force that "he and Dharmaraj Kashyap (already arrested in the case) are from the same village. He used to work as a scrap dealer in Pune. His and Shubham Lonkar's scrap shops were next to each other".

The main shooter said Lonkar worked for gangster Lawrence Bishnoi and made him talk to Lawrence's brother Anmol Bishnoi several times through SnapChat, according to the statement.

Meanwhile, Shivkumar's mother Suman said her son could not commit murder.

"I was unwell, the media people woke me up in the morning and then I came to know that Shiva has been arrested," the mother told reporters with tears in her eyes.

"We had no news of him since four days after Holi in March. We do not know what he did but he has never even killed an ant here. We do not believe that he would do such a thing," she said. Meanwhile, family members of the Shivkumar's accomplices said they are "innocent".

Vishal Srivastava, the elder brother of Akash, told reporters, "We only know that Anurag, a resident of the village, took them all with him. My brother is innocent. He is being framed in the case." Pradeep Tripathi, father of Gyan Prakash, also said that his son is innocent.

"Two boys from the village lived next door, they did something wrong there (in Maharashtra). My son was their friend. My son used to work at a mobile shop. The day before yesterday he said that he was going to Gonda...at night we came to know that police had taken him away," he said.

Radhey Kashyap, father of Anurag said, "He (Anurag) was here four or five days ago. We only knew that he had gone with some businessmen to sell clothes and would come back. In the morning, we came to know that Anurag was arrested." PTI