“In exchange for the murder of Baba Siddique, I was told that after the murder you will get Rs 10 lakh and every month you will keep getting something or the other. Shubham Lonkar and Mohd. Yasin Akhtar gave us weapons, cartridges, SIM (card) and a mobile phone for the murder. After the murder, the three shooters were given new SIM and mobile phones to talk to each other,” Shiv Kumar told the police.
“For the last several days, we were doing the recce of Baba Siddique in Mumbai and on the night of October 12, 2024, when we got the right time, we killed Baba Siddique. That day, because of the festival, there were police and a crowd of people due to which two people were caught on the spot and I escaped. I threw the phone on the way and went from Mumbai to Pune,” Shiv Kumar said.
From Pune, I reached Bahraich via Jhansi and Lucknow. In between, I kept talking to my colleagues and handlers by asking for anyone’s phone. When I talked to Anurag using a passenger’s phone from the train, he said that Alinder, Gyan Prakash and Aakaash have together made arrangements for you to hide in Nepal.
“That is why I came to Bahraich and was trying to escape to Nepal along with my colleagues. The rest of the colleagues also supported this,” Shiv Kumar said, according to the statement issued by the UP STF.
According to Mumbai Police, 18 persons had been arrested in the Siddique murder case until November 7.
(With inputs from PTI and ANI)
