Mumbai: In the Baba Siddique murder case, main shooter Shiv Kumar Gautam, arrested in Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh, on November 10, has confessed that the Lawrence Bishnoi gang had tasked him to kill either Baba Siddique or his son Zeeshan, depending on who he encountered first.
The police also said he was brainwashed by Lawrence’s brother Anmol that the act was for society and god, leaving him remorseless about the crime.
Key Details Revealed
During interrogation, Gautam has revealed that after killing Siddique on October 12, he did not flee immediately but stayed disguised at the scene to observe the aftermath. He later changed his shirt and blended into the crowd. He then took an auto to Kurla station, boarded a local train to Thane, and then boarded an Express train for Pune around 3am.
In Pune, he discarded his phone to prevent the police from tracking him. After a week, he travelled by train to Jhansi, where he stayed for five days before heading to Lucknow. He bought a new phone there and contacted his associates through voice-over internet protocol (VoIP).
After staying in Lucknow for 11 days and meeting a female friend, he reached Bahraich five days ago, where his four associates had arranged a safe hut for him in a remote village 10km away. According to the police, throughout his journey from Mumbai to Bahraich, he used only public transport. Following instructions from the Bishnoi gang, he planned to escape to Nepal on November 10. Gautam further disclosed that after killing Siddique, the plan was to go to Ujjain, then Vaishno Devi, and then leave the country, though this did not materialise.
Interrogation also revealed that while fleeing from Mumbai, he contacted the accused Anurag Kashyap using the phone of a Jharkhand-bound passenger. Before and after the murder, he was also in regular contact with accused Shubham Lonkar and Mohammed Zeeshan Akhtar. The crime branch had been on his trail for the past 28 days. An official said that Gautam’s family and close associates, totalling 45 persons, were being monitored, with their movements and interactions tracked. As the investigation progressed, the crime branch narrowed down to four who were consistently in contact with him via internet calling. The calling activities of accused Gyanprakash Tripathi, Anurag Kashyap, Akhilendra Pratap Singh, and Akash Srivastava were high and they came on police’s radar.
These four were monitored for several days, with close attention paid to their locations. Eventually, Gautam’s associates went to buy clothes for Gautam, further raising police suspicion. This confirmed that Tripathi, Kashyap, Singh, and Srivastava were in regular contact with him. On November 10, a trap was set and when these four reached the safe house, the police apprehended them. Shortly after, Gautam too was arrested. On November 11, officials presented Gautam and four other accused before the Killa court.
During the hearing, the crime branch revealed that Kashyap had received Rs 2 lakh in his bank account before the incident, which he withdrew and gave to Gautam. This money was used to purchase the weapon. The crime branch is investigating the source of these funds, adding that the weapon used by Gautam to kill Baba is yet to be recovered.
According to the crime branch, accused Harish Kumar Nishad, a scrap dealer, received Rs 4.5 lakh in his account, with additional funds through cash deposit machines in UP, Punjab, and Haryana. Following the hearing, the court sent all five accused to police custody until November 19.
