Baba Siddique murder: Lonkar convinced shooter he was carrying out a patriotic act

Police are on the lookout for Lonkar and his accomplice Zeeshan Akhtar who are believed to be handlers of the shooters.

“Gautam told us he was working in the shop near Lonkar’s dairy and would move around with Lonkar’s gang. Lonkar was heavily influenced by ‘religion’ and ‘nationalism’ and brainwashed Gautam into targeting Siddique by likening it to a ‘patriotic act’,” a senior officer said.

Lonkar was also upset that Poonawala had murdered Walkar and had decided to bump him off too but the plan could not be executed. There was another rival in Pune who was on the hit list but that too could not be carried out.

Lonkar, an army aspirant, failed the army recruitment test in Jaisalmer in 2018-19. As per police, in Jaisalmer he met a man called Bajra who told him that if he wanted to work for the country, he could introduce him to someone who would help him. And thus, he came to be introduced to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang.
Later, Lonkar was also sent to Nepal and Azerbaijan, police said, where he received arms training by the gang members.

In February this year, the local Akola police had arrested Lonkar with arms and found that he was directly in touch with Lawrence Bishnoi. “We found that he had messaged Bishnoi twice in two years to wish him on his birthday,” a source said.

So far 23 persons have been arrested in the case including Gautam. The police said Gautam was directly in touch with Lawrence’s brother Anmol Bishnoi, who is suspected to be holed up in the USA.