Baba Siddiqui.
| Photo Credit: EMMANUAL YOGINI
A special court on Wednesday (January 29, 2025) issued non-bailable warrants against gangster Lawrence Bishnoi’s brother Anmol Lavindersing Bishnoi and two others wanted accused, Shubham Rameshwar Lonkar and Jishan Akhtar, in the NCP leader Baba Siddique’s murder case.
The additional sessions judge and the special judge for cases under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), B. D. Shelke, said, “After hearing submissions, I have gone through the chargesheet, investigating papers submitted along with chargesheet, from which it reveals that there is sufficient material on record in respect of complicity of this wanted accused — Anmol Bishnoi in this case.”
The judge noted that the court had already issued request for deportation of Anmol Bishnoi to the competent authority in the United States of America in a case pertaining to the firing outside actor Salman Khan’s Bandra residence in April 2024.
“This court believes that the wanted accused has absconded or he will not obey the summons. Hence, a standing non-bailable warrant is required to be issued against this accused in view of Section 90(a) of the BNSS to secure his presence,” the order said.
The court made similar observations on the absconding accused Shubham Rameshwar Lonkar and Jishan Akhtar and issued a non-bailable warrant against them.
“Jishan Akhtar had arranged the meeting of accused Rohit and arrested accused Amit Singh. He was in contact with arrested accused Dharmraj, Gurmel and Shivkumar Gautam through Snapchat and Instagram. He was also in contact with those accused through WhatsApp on mobile phone. Thus, he was a member of the gang headed by Anmol Bishnoi. There is ample evidence on record in respect of involvement in this crime,” the order read.
After committing murder of former MLA Baba Siddiqui, Akhtar has accepted responsibility for the crime by publishing a post through Facebook account of wanted accused Shubham Rameshwar Lonkar.
“Shubham Rameshwar Lonkar has paid ₹10,000 to accused no. 1 Gurmen through bank account of accused no.25 depositing the same in the bank account of accused Naresh Kumar on 26.08.2020. On 18.07.2024 an amount of ₹20,000 was sent in the bank account of arrested accused Harish Kumar through the bank account of arrested accused Salman bhai as per instructions of this accused. He did practice of firing before this incident at Jharkhand. As per directions of this accused and arrested accused Pravin Lonkar, firearm was handed over to arrested accused Rupesh Mohol,” the order said.
Lonkar also made a social media post viral through his Facebook account accepting the responsibility of the incident of committing the murder of Siddique.
The police have filed a chargesheet against 26 arrested accused in connection with the murder of Siddique who was shot dead by three assailants outside his son and former MLA Zeeshan Siddique’s office in Mumbai’s Bandra (East) area on the night of October 12, 2024.
All the arrested accused have been booked under the stringent MCOCA, and are currently in judicial custody.
Published – January 30, 2025 12:07 am IST