MUMBAI: Actor Salman Khan was the primary target of the gang that shot NCP politician Baba Siddique on October 12, said the police chargesheet submitted on Monday.
The chargesheet claimed that Siddique’s murder was executed as part of a fallback plan after an initial attempt to eliminate Khan failed because of the security cover around the actor.
It said Siddique came on the radar of the Bishnoi gang due to his proximity to Khan and his alleged ties with global terrorist Dawood Ibrahim.
Exacting vengeance for the custodial death of Anuj Thapan, an accused in a previous case of firing on Khan, was another factor in targeting the actor and his friend, said the police.
The initial plan was to target Siddique or his son, Zeeshan, or both, during Ganpati visarjan. It failed because the two did not participate in the visarjan. On Oct 12, Siddique was leaving Zeeshan’s office at Nirmal Nagar in Bandra (East) five minutes after his son had left. He was gunned down a little after he stepped outside, near Nirmal Nagar police station.
The chargesheet named 26 arrested accused and highlighted the involvement of three absconding suspects, Mohammad Yasin Akhtar alias Sikandar, Shubham Lonkar alias Shubbu and Anmol Singh Bishnoi alias Bhanu.
It said Bishnoi masterminded the murder as part of a calculated move to assert dominance, instill fear and expand his extortion racket.
The 4,590-page chargesheet, which was submitted by the anti-extortion cell before the special MCOCA court, did not mention jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi.
Police sources said they found no evidence of Lawrence Bishnoi’s involvement. They also ruled out the Slum Rehabilitation Authority angle as alleged by Zeeshan.
“Prima facie, we have not found any evidence to link the murder to SRA as alleged by Siddique’s son, Zeeshan. Though we recorded statements from a few developers, nothing came out of it. We are banking on whatever Shubham Lonkar alias Shubbu uploaded on the post on social media claiming responsibility two days after the firing,” an official said.
The police annexed a copy of the Facebook post attributed to ‘Shubuu Lonkar Maharashtra’ which read: “Salman Khan, we never wanted this war, but you caused harm to our brother. Today … we will surely respond, though we never attacked first.”
The post indicated tension between the Bishnoi gang and Siddique and Salman Khan over the killing of a black buck in 1998 by Khan while shooting for the film ‘Hum Saath Saath Hain’.
The post alleged that Siddique had links with Dawood Ibrahim and hinted that the murder was revenge for Anuj Thapan’s death.
