The Mumbai Police on Sunday established that one Shubham Lonkar, the person who had allegedly put out a social media post claiming that jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi was behind the murder of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Baba Siddique, was a “key conspirator” in the case.
Lonkar, who had put the post through his account ‘shubuu lonkar’, is a resident of Akola and is currently absconding. Police sources told The Indian Express that his brother Pravin, who was also allegedly a participant in the conspiracy, has been arrested from Pune.
An officer said, “Shubham Lonkar had put up the social media post claiming that Siddique was gunned down due to his earlier links to Dawood and the death oo Anuj Thappan, (one of the accused arrested in the case involving firing outside actor Salman Khan’s residence who committed suicide in police lockup). He deleted the post within a few minutes, due to which we could not trace it. However, the probe revealed that he was involved in hatching the conspiracy. He fled by the time we reached his Akola residence. We have however arrested his brother Pravin from Pune.”
Shubham has earlier been arrested for supplying arms along with his brother and eight others. Moreover, he has been found to be in direct touch with Lawrence Bishnoi, who is lodged in Sabarmati prison in Gujarat.
The officer said that Lonkar was the one who hired two of the three accused involved in the firing, who were working at a scrap yard in Pune. “The duo was working at a shop next to the one owned by Lonkar’s. That is how they knew them and offered them money for carrying out the hit job on Siddique. Lonkar was in turn directly in touch with Bishnoi and is a mid level operative in the gang.”
Earlier this year, in February, the Akola police had found that Shubham had directed an unidentified supplier to deliver the weapons to another accused . Lonkar, who was the mastermind, was arrested on January 30. Investigations revealed that Lonkar had allegedly done WhatsApp video calls with gangster Lawrence Bishnoi twice in 2022 and 2023, and he had also received WhatsApp audio calls from three international numbers, including from the gangster’s brother Anmol Bishnoi.