Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], November 11 : A day after Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF), and a team from the Mumbai Crime Branch arrested the main shooter in the Baba Siddique murder case along with four other accused, ADGP (Law & Order), STF Uttar Pradesh, Amitabh Yash also confirmed the arrest in a press conference on Monday.
The arrest was made on Sunday from Nanpara in UP's Bahraich in joint operation by UP STF and Mumbai Crime Branch.
"STF UP and Crime Branch Mumbai have arrested the main shooter in the Baba Siddique Murder case. Four other accused have also been arrested along with them...All the accused have been arrested from the Nanpara area...The planning of the murder was done on Snapchat...Further investigation is underway by the Mumbai Crime Branch...," said ADGP (Law & Order), STF Uttar Pradesh, Amitabh Yash.
According to the UP STF, the main accused identified as Shiva Kumar was arrested while he was trying to flee Nepal. For now, all accused are being brought to Mumbai. A team comprising 6 officers and 15 personnel conducted the operation.
In addition to Shiva Kumar, four others--Anurag Kashyap, Gyan Prakash Tripathi, Akash Srivastava, and Akhileshendra Pratap Singh--were arrested for allegedly assisting in Shiva Kumar's escape and sheltering him, as well as helping him in his attempt to flee to Nepal.
According to a statement by the Uttar Pradesh STF, the shooters involved in the crime have confessed that the murder was carried out under the orders of notorious gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, who is currently imprisoned.
The shooters reportedly admitted to receiving logistical support from Shubham Lonkar and Mohammad Yaseen Akhtar, who helped coordinate the hit. The main accused also confessed that he talked to Lawrence Bishnoi's younger brother Anmol, several times through a social media app.
"In exchange for the murder of Baba Siddique, I was told that after the murder you will get ten lakh rupees and you will keep getting something every month. Shubham Lonkar and Yaseen Akhtar gave us weapons, cartridges, SIM and mobile phones for the murder," said Shiva in his statement to UP STF.
"After the murder, the three shooters were given new SIM and mobile phones to talk to each other. For the last several days, we were doing recce of Baba Siddiqui in Mumbai and on getting the right time on the night of 12-10-2024, we killed Baba Siddiqui," he added further.
Notably, Siddique (66) was shot dead by three gunmen in Mumbai's Bandra area on October 12.