Baba Siddique murder case: Third accused sent to police custody till October 21

A Mumbai court on Monday sent Pravin Lonkar, one of the six accused identified in the Baba Siddique murder case, to police custody till October 21.
Pravin was arrested by the crime branch on Sunday. Allegations against him are that he, along with others, conspired and provided logistical support to the three assailants, who allegedly shot at Siddique on Saturday night.
According to Mumbai Police, Pravin is the brother of Shubham Lonkar who put out a social media post claiming that the Lawrence Bishnoi gang had taken responsibility for the murder. Shubham Lonkar is on the run.
Advocate Prashant Badkar, the Defence Lawyer, did not agree with the court’s order and called Pravin’s police custody ‘illegal’ detention.
“Pravin was arrested at 4 am on Sunday and was being produced after 24 hours are over, so it amounts to illegal detention. An accused who has been arrested by the investigators has to be produced in court within 24 hours of arrest”, Badkar pointed out.
“He is being falsely shown as being arrested in the evening. He was actually taken into custody by Mumbai police on Sunday morning. No doubt this is a sensitive case, but there cannot be allegations of conspiracy against Pravin, who only runs a dairy. He was never actively involved in such cases,” Badkar further submitted.
Meanwhile, the Additional Public Prosecutor (APP), representing the Mumbai Police, submitted that “Pravin is Shubham Lonkar’s brother who has a connection with the Bishnoi gang and has criminal antecedents. A case in Akola under the Arms Act is registered against Shubham and Pravin, who, along with other accused, conspired and supplied the arms to the shooters”.
The APP further demanded that Pravin be taken to Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana and Rajasthan, which could help trace more clues and help the investigation and hence, his custody was required.
Magistrate VR Patil considered the arguments from both sides and perused the case papers before granting custody to police to October 21.
The court had, on Sunday, sent two other accused, Gurmail Singh from Haryana and Dharmaraj Kashyap from Uttar Pradesh, to the crime branch’s custody till October 21.
Siddiqui, a three-time Congress MLA, who had shifted to the Ajit Pawar-led faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) earlier this year, was shot dead while he was bursting crackers in Mumbai on October 12.
According to police, the two arrested shooters and one absconding shooter, Shiv Kumar Gautam, had been conducting recce of Siddiqui’s office for a few weeks before they fired six rounds at him.
The police said they are still on the lookout for the third shooter, Shiv Kumar, and Shubham Lonkar, apart from one Mohammad Zeeshan Akhtar, who is also alleged to have provided logistical support for this contract killing apart from hatching the murder conspiracy.