Accused sought Rs 50 lakh for Baba Siddiqui’s murder: Police

Mumbai: Police officials probing the Baba Siddiqui murder case have revealed that the five newly arrested accused had demanded Rs 50 lakh for the murder, but later backed out due to disagreement over money and the NCP leader’s influence.

However, he provided equipment and other assistance to those involved in shooting the former MLA.

The crime branch of the city police had on Friday arrested five accused for allegedly providing weapons and other support to baba Siddiqui’s shooters, taking the total number of arrests in the case to nine and three key persons absconding.

The arrested accused have been identified as Nitin Gautam Sapre (32), Sambhaji Kisan Pardhi (44), Pradeep Dattu Thombre (37), Chetan Dilip Pardhi and Ram Phulchand Kanojia (43). During their interrogation, the police revealed that the module led by Sapre had demanded Rs 50 lakh from the middleman to kill NCP leader Baba Siddiqui.

It did not work out due to disagreements over the contract, they decided to back out. The main shooters in the case, Shivkumar Gautam, Shubham Lonkar and Mohammad Zeeshan Akhtar, are currently absconding. The police have issued a lookout circular against the three accused.