Anmol Bishnoi's name surfaced as main conspirator in Baba Siddique murder: Police tells court

Mumbai: The Mumbai police on Tuesday told a special court here that the name of Anmol Bishnoi, the younger brother of jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, has emerged as the main conspirator in the October 12 killing of NCP leader Baba Siddique.

The police made this claim while seeking the remand of eight accused in the case, citing provisions of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).

Special MCOCA court judge, A M Patil, remanded the eight accused, including main shooter Shivkumar Gautam, in police custody till December 7.

Anmol, who was recently detained in the USA and lodged in a prison there, has been shown as a wanted accused in the case.

During the remand hearing, the Mumbai police told the court that Anmol's name has surfaced as the main conspirator in the case during their probe. It said he was providing financial support to other accused and a probe was required to ascertain the source and utilisation of funds.

The police told the court that Anmol had contacted the co-accused via a communication app and they needed to gather information on this aspect, and hence the custody of the arrested accused was required.

The crime branch has until now arrested 26 accused, including alleged main shooter Shivkumar Gautam, in connection with the case.

All the accused had earlier been sent to judicial custody by a magistrate court. But on November 30, the police invoked the stringent provisions of the MCOCA against all the 26 accused. Following this, all the accused were produced before the special court on Tuesday.

However, before the court proceedings began, the judge asked journalists present in the courtroom to leave after the prosecution raised an objection, saying the remand application has sensitive information.

Police sought remand of the eight accused, including Gautam, for further in-depth investigation into the matter.

Defence lawyers Roopesh Jaiswal, Ajinkya Mirgal and Dilip Shukla opposed the remand, saying the accused have already been in custody for over 40 days. The lawyer contended that the provisions of MCOCA are not made out against the accused as they have no previous cases against them.

Moreover, there is nothing on record to show that these accused were part of the gang, which had two charge-sheets (an essential requirement to invoke MCOCA) against them, they said.

The court, after hearing both the sides, sent the eight accused to police custody till December 7. The rest of the accused were sent to a 14-day jail custody by the special court.

Anmol Bishnoi and Shubham Lonkar are wanted accused in the case.

Former Maharashtra minister Siddique, 66, was shot dead on October 12 by three assailants outside his son MLA Zeeshan Siddique's office building in Bandra East, Mumbai. He sustained two bullet injuries on his chest and was rushed to the Lilavati hospital in Mumbai, where he passed away.