Mumbai: Baba Siddique, the leader of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and a three-time MLA, was shot dead late on Saturday and will be given a state funeral on Sunday night. It was ordered by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
In the meantime, Mumbai police have verified that imprisoned gangster Lawrence Bishnoi was responsible for Siddique’s death. He was shot dead by three attackers, Dharamraj and Gurmail Singh, who have been arrested and will appear in Mumbai’s Killa court today. The suspect has been identified as Shiv Kumar, and the attack occurred ahead of the Assembly elections, which are scheduled for November, despite Y-level category security.
Condemning the incident, several leaders, including Sharad Pawar, have demanded the resignation of Maharashtra Home Minister Devendra Fadnavis. Leaders of opposition parties, including the Congress, demanded accountability from the Shinde-led government for “increasing criminal activities” in the state. Mumbai Police has so far identified and detained two persons in connection with the incident, one from Haryana and the other from Uttar Pradesh, while the third person involved in the incident is said to be absconding. The case has been handed over to the Mumbai Crime Branch.
The incident took place when his car was leaving from the office of his MLA son Zeeshan in the Bandra East. According to the police, the miscreants kept about six to seven round bullets, out of which two hit him in his chest and one hit him in the abdomen. He suffered several serious injuries and was immediately taken to Lilavati Hospital, where he was declared dead during treatment. Siddiqui has been elected as a Congress MLA three times and has represented the Bandra West constituency from 1999 to 2014.
Siddique, a three-time Bandra West MLA, left the Congress earlier in February of this year and joined Ajit Pawar’s NCP. The NCP canceled all events scheduled for Sunday in light of the killing. “Keeping in view the tragic death of our party colleague Baba Siddique, all party programs for 13th October, i.e., Sunday stand, are cancelled,” the party said in a post on X.
Sharad Pawar, the Nationalist Congress Party’s president, said that the shooting of former state minister Baba Siddiqui is “regrettable.” “If the Home Minister and the rulers are going to push the cart of the state so mildly, it can be an alarm bell for the common people. There is a need not only to investigate this but also to accept the responsibility and step down from the position of the rulers.,” he wrote in Marathi on X.
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