Baba Siddique murder: Shooters learnt to handle guns through YouTube videos
Gautam was hired as the ‘main shooter’, as he knew how to handle firearms; he trained Kashyap and Singh at a rented house in Kurla, where they did ‘dry practice’
Shooters involved in the killing of NCP leader and former Maharashtra minister Baba Siddique learnt to handle firearms by watching videos on YouTube at a rented house in Kurla area in Mumbai, officials said on Wednesday (October 16).
Baba Siddique (66), a former Congress leader who had joined the Nationalist Congress Party earlier this year, was waylaid by three persons in Mumbai's Nirmal Nagar area, just outside his MLA son Zeeshan Siddique's office, and shot on Saturday night (October 12).
Also Read: Siddique killing | Why Mumbai police are unable to secure Bishnoi’s custody
The Mumbai police's crime branch, which is investigating the case, during the interrogation of the accused persons found that suspected shooter Shivkumar Gautam, who is on the run, had learnt to handle guns during the celebratory firings at weddings in Uttar Pradesh, an official said.
During the interrogation of the arrested accused - Gurmail Singh and Dharmaraj Kashyap - it also came to light that Gautam was hired as the "main shooter", as he had knowledge of handling firearms, he said.
Gautam trained Kashyap and Singh
Kashyap and Singh were trained in shooting by Gautam at a rented house in Kurla, where they did "dry practice" (shooting without bullets), he said.
They learnt loading and unloading the weapon by watching YouTube videos for nearly four weeks, as they could not find an open space for practice, the official said.
One of the alleged co-conspirators, Shubham Lonkar, was on the police radar till September 24, after he was questioned in June in connection with an incident of firing outside actor Salman Khan's residence in Mumbai in April as the involvement of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang was suspected.
Also Read: Baba Siddique murder plot hatched in Pune; Lonkar brothers key figures
Shubham Lonkar had been arrested in January in an Arms Act case registered at Akot police station in Maharashtra's Akola district but he later got bail. Police had recovered more than ten firearms in that case, an official said.
Shubham had been found to be in communication with Lawrence Bishnoi's brother Anmol, he said.
Since then he was on the police radar, but he went untraceable on September 24, the official said.
Accused communicated through social media apps
During the investigation, it also came to light that the accused persons used to communicate with each other by using social media apps like Snapchat and Instagram, he said.
Shubham Lonkar has knowledge of mobile phone apps, he said.
Also Read: Baba Siddique murder: All about suspected shooters, conspirators, handler
He had asked all the members involved in the conspiracy (to kill Siddique) to speak via Instagram and chat through Snapchat to avoid surveillance, the official said.
Snapchat has a feature which automatically deletes most messages after they've been viewed or expired, he said.
(With agency inputs)
