What we know so far about the public murder of an Indian politician

The murder of a politician in a busy area of ​​the Indian city of Mumbai sent shockwaves across the country.

Baba Ziauddin Siddique, 66, was shot on Saturday night near his car while he was leaving his son’s office. He died later in hospital.

The murder of Siddique, an influential politician who was a member of the coalition that ruled Maharashtra state – of which Mumbai is the capital – has sparked a political blame game.

The motive for the killing remains unclear, but for many, it evoked memories of the 1990s, when politicians and film stars were frequent targets of Mumbai’s underworld.

So far, police have arrested three people and said the investigation is continuing. Local media reported that those arrested were members of a notorious gang whose leader is currently in prison.

Born in the eastern state of Bihar, Siddique migrated to Mumbai when he was five years old with his father, a watchmaker.

He began his political career in the 1980s as a student leader of the Congress party, soon leading its youth wing in Mumbai. He then entered local council politics before being elected to the state legislature three times in a row and becoming chief minister in 2004 for about four years.

In February, he left the Congress to join the Congress Party, along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiv Sena, which now governs the state.

In addition to his political activities, Siddique also made headlines for his flashy iftar parties held during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan attended by top Bollywood stars.

It was at his iftar party in 2013 that superstars Salman Khan and Shahrukh Khan ended their much-discussed rift with a hug – which propelled the annual ‘Siddique event’ into a must see in the city’s social calendar”, Midday newspaper wrote in 2016.

The politician was shot outside his son’s office as he was about to get into his car in the busy Bandra area.

Police said three gunmen fired six or seven bullets, hitting Siddique in the stomach and chest, then fled the scene. A bystander was also injured by a stray bullet that hit his leg.

Investigators said they recovered two pistols and 28 rounds of live ammunition from those arrested.

Siddique had three police guards – local media reported his security was poor. upgrade a few days ago – but according to reports the suspect distracted them by lighting “smoke fireworks”.

Police have been granted authority to detain those arrested for a week. They said they were looking for their accomplices.

“We have formed 15 teams and are investigating to determine who provided logistical support to the shooters,” senior police official Datta Nalawade said.

While the police have not confirmed this, several reports quoting sources have linked those arrested to the notorious Bishnoi gang. The gang’s leader, Lawrence Bishnoi, is an accused in several cases and is currently detained in a high-security prison in the state of Gujarat.

Within hours of the shooting, a man claiming to be a member of the gang posted on Facebook that they were behind Siddique’s murder. Police have not yet confirmed the authenticity of the post.

Even though Bishnoi has been in jail since 2015, he still regularly makes news. Many social media accounts claiming to belong to him or his associates often post selfies of him in prison. He even gave an interview to a TV channel in 2022, pushing for an investigation.

Many reports about Bishnoi are based on police sources and it is unclear how he conducted gang activities while in prison.

The name of the gang appears in connection with killing by Punjabi rapper Sidhu Moosewala in 2022.

In April, police arrested two gang members allegedly opened fire outside actor Salman Khan’s apartment in Mumbai.

On Monday, Canadian police also said they believed the Bishnoi group had connect to Indian government agents who were using the gang to target Sikh separatists on their soil. India has not officially responded to the police statements.

Siddique’s murder is the first major assassination of a politician in Mumbai since the 1990s when the killings of politicians, businessmen and Bollywood celebrities were carried out by underworld gangs. Mumbai implementation is not uncommon.

Local media reported he had received death threats two weeks ago, prompting his security to be upgraded.

His murder over the next few days left the state government in a difficult position, as Maharashtra prepared to hold early assembly elections.

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge called the killing a “complete breach of law and order in Maharashtra”, and former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the incident had shocked not only the people of Maharashtra “but the entire country ” scared.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has defended his government.

“[The culprits] will not be spared whoever they are, whether they are Bishnoi gang or any underworld gang… Those who are receiving threats, their safety is the responsibility of the state government and they will become my responsibility,” he said.

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