Pravin Lonkar, brother linked to Bishnoi gang, part of conspiracy in Siddique murder: police

Seeking his custody, public prosecutor SN Vaidya told the court that both Lonkar and Shubham were connected with the Bishnoi gang.

Since Shubham is still at large, the police need to interrogate Lonkar to ascertain his brother’s location. Lonkar, who was produced before the court on Monday, was remanded in police custody until October 21. “There are cases registered against Shubham in Mumbai and Pune, and only Lonkar can tell us about his brother’s whereabouts,” said prosecutor Vaidya. The police further stated that the accused, along with his brother Shubham, Mohamed Zeeshan Akhtar, and Shivkumar Gautam, provided the weapons used in the crime. “The arrested accused is based in Pune. So we need to ascertain how he got in touch with the previously arrested individuals who are settled in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh,” Vaidya told the court.

Two other accused, Gurmail Singh and Dharamraj Kashyab, were arrested after they allegedly fired six rounds at Siddique in Bandra October 12.
Siddique was rushed to the hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.

Earlier on Sunday, Shubham had put up a social media post claiming that Siddique was gunned down due to his earlier links to Dawood Ibrahim and the death of Anuj Thappan (one of the accused arrested in the firing outside actor Salman Khan’s residence, who allegedly died by suicide in the lock-up).  He deleted the post within a few minutes.

The police also mentioned that they need to take Lonkar to Haryana, Bihar, and Rajasthan to identify his connections with the gang. However, defense lawyer Pranay Kutkar denied the police’s claims, stating that Lonkar has been falsely implicated in the crime and that investigators need to uncover the conspiracy that led to his being named as an accused.

Kutkar told the court that Lonkar has been made a scapegoat in the case because his brother was absconding.

Raising allegations against the police, Kutkar also stated that Lonkar was picked up from his home at 4 am Sunday but was officially arrested in the evening and produced before the court Monday.

The defense argued that he Lonkar did not flee when the police arrived at his home which shows that he has no active role in the crime.