Baba Siddique murder accused's families claim no contact, one was out on bail

Two accused--Gurmail Baljit Singh and Dharmaraj Rajesh Kashyap--have been arrested for the murder of NCP leader Baba Siddique, while the third one--Shiv Kumar--is on the run.

In Short

• Two accused arrested for murder of Baba Siddique
• They claimed to be from the Lawrence Bishnoi gang
• Their families say they both left their villages a long time ago

Gurmail Baljit Singh, the 23-year-old accused arrested in the murder of NCP leader Baba Siddique, was out on bail in another murder case for which he had served time in jail, according to his family in Haryana's Kaithal. The family stated that they had no contact with him for a long time.

Relatives of Gurmail's co-accused, 19-year-old Dharmaraj Rajesh Kashyap from Uttar Pradesh's Bahraich, also claimed that they were unaware of his whereabouts and had been out of touch with him.

Gurmail's grandmother, Phuli Devi, who lives with the accused's younger brother, told India Today that he was in jail for a murder case in 2019. Three months ago, he was released on bail and has not contacted the family since then.

"When he came home, he stayed for just a few minutes. I had gone out for some work, and by the time I returned, Gurmail had left," she said, adding that "he had not maintained contact with the family and did not come home for any festival or family function".

Gurmail was the only son of his father. After his father's death, he and his mother lived with his uncle's family. The grandmother recalled that Gurmail had been fighting since childhood, which led to his eviction from their home 11 years ago.

Meanwhile, Rajesh Kashyap's mother said that he had gone to Pune for work in a scrapyard and had no contact with him.

She said, "He went to Pune to work in a scrapyard. That's all I knew. I was not aware of what he was doing in Mumbai... He came home for Holi, but after that, he did not return. He wasn't even talking to me on the phone, so I cannot say anything about the incident. He is around 18-19 years old".

The mother of the third accused, Shiv Kumar, who is at large, also said that he used to work in Pune. "He used to work in Pune, he had not come home after Holi. I got information in the morning. I have not talked with him in the last 8-9 days. I don't have information about where he is right now," the mother said.

Former Maharashtra Minister and NCP leader Baba Siddique was shot dead near his office in Mumbai's Bandra on Saturday night. Gurmail and Kashyap told the Mumbai police that they belonged to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang. A member of the same gang, in a social media post, claimed that the Bishnoi gang was behind the murder and hinted that the leader's links with Bollywood actor Salman Khan were a reason behind it. A third shooter, Shiv Kumar, who is also from UP, is still at large, and a manhunt has been launched.

(Inputs from Virender Puri and agencies)