The Bombay police have concluded that gangster Anmol Bishnoi ordered the killing of politician Baba Siddique because of his proximity to actor Salman Khan. Two-and-a-half months after the ex-minister was bumped off outside his politician-son Zeeshan’s office, the crime branch has ruled out the dispute over SRA projects in Bandra East (Bombay) as the motive for the murder, as alleged by Zeeshan. The police are likely to submit the chargesheet in a week’s time against the 26 arrested. The chargesheet will mention the reason for the killing on October 12 as proximity to Salman Khan.
One of the suspects, Shubham Lonkar alias Shubbu, claimed responsibility for the murder in a post on social media two days after the killing. Lonkar, who is on the run, had claimed that the Bishnoi gang was behind the murder. The post read: “Salman Khan, we never wanted this war, but you caused harm to our brother. Today… we will surely respond though we never attacked first.” The post indicated ongoing tensions involving Baba Siddique, Salman Khan and the Bishnoi gang over the killing of a black buck by Salman in 1998 while shooting for Sooraj Barjatya’s Hum Saath-Saath Hain. The same post also alleged that Baba Siddique had links with Dawood Ibrahim and hinted that the murder was revenge for Anuj Thapan’s death.
Thapan, an accused in the Salman Khan house firing case in April, died by suicide while in crime branch custody.
Sources said, the chargesheet will be filed in the first week of January 2025 before the MCOCA court against 26 accused persons. Canada-based gangsters Anmol Bishnoi, Shubham Lonkar and Zeeshan Akhtar have been shown as absconding accused.
Although the police want to interrogate jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, they have no direct evidence linking him to the crime. A police officer said, “The shooters were told, Siddique was Dawood’s man, and was responsible for the death of Anuj Thapan, a suspect in the Salman Khan firing case. Based on this, they accepted the contract to kill Siddique.”