A Week After His Murder, Baba Siddique's Son Zeeshan's Photo Discovered On Shooter's Phone

The Mumbai Police revealed on Saturday that one of the accused in NCP leader Baba Siddique's case had the photo of his son Zeeshan Siddique on his mobile.

The photo was sent to the accused Ram Kanojia's mobile by his handler through Snapchat. "Investigation revealed that the shooters and conspirators used Snapchat to share information with messages being deleted after instructions were given," ANI quoted Mumbai police as saying.

Ram Kanojia was the first person to be assigned the job of eliminating the NCP leader by fugitive accused Shubham Lonkar and he had initially demanded Rs 1 crore to murder him.

"During interrogation by the Mumbai Crime Branch, Ram Kanojia disclosed that Shubham Lonkar initially offered the contract to him and Nitin Sapre to kill Baba Siddiqui. Kanojia, who hails from Maharashtra, knew the consequences of killing Baba Siddiqui, which is why he was hesitant to take the contract. This led him to demand one crore rupees for the job. Subsequently, Shubham Lonkar chose not to hire Ram Kanojia and instead selected shooters from Uttar Pradesh," the news agency quoted the crime branch as saying.

"Kanojia further revealed that Shubham Lonkar was aware that the people from Uttar Pradesh might not be fully aware of Baba Siddiqui's stature or reputation in Maharashtra. Therefore, they would agree to carry out the murder for a lower price. When Ram Kanojia and Nitin Sapre backed out, Shubham hired Dharma Raj Kashyap, Gurnail Singh, and Shivkumar Gautam from Uttar Pradesh for the task," the statement further added.

On the other hand, the investigating officers have released a look-out circular for Shubham Lonkar, along with two additional suspects, Shiv Kumar Gautam and Zeeshan Akhtar. They are reportedly trying to escape to Nepal.

On October 12, Baba Siddique was killed outside his office in Nirmal Nagar after he sustained two gunshot wounds on his chest. He was treated at Mumbai's Lilavati Hospital and he succumbed to his injuries.