Mumbai: The alleged main shooter in NCP leader Baba Siddique’s murder case, Shivkumar Gautam alias Shiva, told the police that minutes after the Oct 12 firing incident, two cops asked if he had seen any of the fleeing killers.
Gautam escaped after firing at Siddique outside his son Zeeshan’s office in Bandra East, changed his clothes and returned to the scene of the crime, police said. When two policemen asked him if he had seen the killers, he replied in the negative. During questioning, Gautam said that his accomplices Dharmaraj Kashyap (21) and Gurmail Singh (23) were caught by the police. “He told us that the duo did not see him in the crowd,” said an officer, adding that Gautam will be taken to the crime scene to get more details about the sequence of events. Gautam was arrested from near the Nepal border in Bahraich on Nov 10.
Police added that they have learnt that two arrested co-accused, Gaurav Apune and Rupesh Mohol, and wanted accused Shubham Lonkar had gone to Jharkhand before the firing incident. “They were received by four-five men who came in a four-wheeler and stayed there for five days. Lonkar was trained in using an AK-47 for four days. The trio then returned from a different route, crossing a naxal-affected area,” the officer said, adding that the trainer and others spoke in Hindi. — Mateen Hafeez