Weapons used to kill Baba Siddique were smuggled from Rajasthan in July: Sources

Weapons that were used by assailants to kill former MLA and Nationalist Congress Party (Ajit Pawar) leader Baba Siddique were transported from Rajasthan’s Udaipur in July and handed over to the shooters in Mumbai to carry out the attack, sources in Mumbai Police told India Today TV.
The Mumbai Crime Branch, investigating the murder of Siddique, also found that two automatic pistols and one country-made firearm were handed over to the accused.
The former MLA was shot at and injured in Nirmal Nagar area in Bandra at around 9.30 pm on October 12. He died some time later during treatment at nearby Lilavati hospital.
The investigation reveals that in July, the weapons were delivered to two of the accused involved in the plot to assassinate Siddique, sources said. These weapons included an Austrian-made Glock pistol, a Turkish Tisas pistol, and a country-made firearm, sources said.
The Mumbai Police arrested the tenth accused in the case, Bhagwat Singh Om Singh, 32, on Sunday from Belapur, Navi Mumbai. Bhagwat Singh, originally from Udaipur, played a key role in facilitating the transport of the weapons to Mumbai.
Police sources said that Bhagwat Singh, who had been running a scrap shop near the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) for eight years, helped fellow accused Ram Kanojia by arranging logistics, accommodation, and safe passage of weapons from Udaipur.
The accused travelled to Udaipur in July to collect the firearms, but due to logistical hurdles, the handover took place later in the month, before being transported to Mumbai, sources added.
When the shooting of Baba Siddique took place on October 12 in Bandra East, Bhagwat Singh was allegedly watching the news of the incident at his shop.
Sensing the police scrutiny, Singh immediately closed his shop and relocated his business to Belapur. Fearing the police would track him to Udaipur, he avoided returning to his hometown and instead laid low in Navi Mumbai.
The investigation into the murder case has revealed that Ram Kanojia and Bhagwat Singh worked together to ensure the weapons reached Mumbai. After the firearms were handed over by an unidentified associate of the crime module in Udaipur, the two accused transported them through a mix of public and private vehicles.
Bhagwat Singh has been remanded in police custody until October 26, with the police continuing their efforts to apprehend key conspirators, including Shiv Kumar Gautam, Shubham Lonkar, and Mohammad Zeeshan Akhtar.
While several of the suspects are believed to be linked to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, the police are yet to formally confirm the gang’s involvement in Siddique’s murder.
The motive behind the assassination is still under investigation, with police sources stating that more clarity will emerge once the primary conspirators, Lonkar and Akhtar, are apprehended.